raonraonpng: Revitalizing Bougainville Tourism for an alternate economy

While referendum for ABG seems to be the main agenda for ABG these days, we cannot wait to see what will transverse on the next process, we have to prepare our people to sustain themselves through alternate economic activity and tourism is one of the focus now for Bougainvilleans,

Mr. Steven Tsivele, Secretary for ABG Department of Economic Development

Bougainville has risen from the crisis and embraced tourism development everywhere in the region. There are locally designed and built Resorts, Lodges and Guesthouses that can cater for any tourist types from adventure to budget traveler with exceptional facilities that can cater for Meetings, Incentive, Conference and Events (MICE) segments of the tourism market.

There are handful of family homes that are providing home-stays after renovation and installation of extra rooms and amenities for the comfort and convenience of tourists that the families will be hosting. One of such is the notable women of Buka Island, Ms. Florence Harepa who owns the Hanis Inn located near the Buka Passage and close to the main wharf. She does not want to advertise her accommodation facility because she has limited rooms with already existing client base. She recalls sleeping outside with other friends one time when her house was fully occupied sometimes in 2012 with her repeat visitors. She had no choice but to give her room to the visitors and find herself a place outside of her home.

Opened to business in 1998 and now has 12 serviced rooms that includes 6 standard and the other 6 rooms are deluxe with suites.

The kitchen had been renovated and lounge set with dining tables and caters for breakfast, lunch and dinner only for the in-house guests. There was a plan of mini in-house bar installation within the area but all at the minimal impact to her usual family atmosphere.

Additionally, Buka Township has some accommodation facilities that are beyond anyone’s expectation with the extra amenities provided in the rooms and within the preemies. The center of attraction that are not to be missed are Kuri and Reasons Resorts which are located next to each other with their restaurants and bar views are directed towards the famous Buka Passage. Dine out or have a few chilled stubby over the decks in the afternoons and you will get the chance to see the wonder of the currents of Buka Passage in the afternoon when the setting sun casts its rays over it. The Buka Passage’s water taxis are frequent sights anyone will never miss on the passage, ferrying passengers between Kokopau and Buka town or to and from Sohano Island.

There is more to do and see in Buka Island despite its landmass and Small Township. Towards the north there are bird watching sites, WWII relic and limestone caves like Tiama which is located only 10km from the town. The naturally hallowed limestone cave is one of the beautiful wonders on the island. The cave extends further into the jungles with a fresh water that flows out from the limestone crest into the sea near a beautiful beachfront of Tiama village. Scientists researches have confirmed that humans have been living inside Tiama cave for the last 300 000 years.

On the southern side of the township is Sohano Island which has a vast history connecting the island to the Bougainville cultural heritage and the WWII history. Further out of Sohano and off into the lagoon are famous WWII wreck sites, best diving, snorkeling and picnic spots.

There are a number of beautiful coral islands with white sandy beaches that are uninhabited and one of the most visited island is Christmas Island for picnic or swimming. The unspoiled corals and undersea biodiversity is diver’s world of adventure and breathtaking exploration for snorkeling enthusiastic.

Meanwhile, along the Buka Ring Road are few tourist sites and facilities that have been initiated and developed by the locals for, bird watching, home-stay, camping, picnic and day out recreation areas. One of the notable sites and currently frequented by residents of Buka town and other visitors on the island is Hon. Francisca Semoso’s place at Malasang village. The place is situated on the cliff edge with stunning views over the Solomon Sea and an ideal place for meetings in a village style setting or for corporate and business functions. The place supports local horticulture for local women groups and promotes arts and crafts which have Tuesday and Thursday market stalls in Buka town.

Affectionately known to many as; ‘the island of San Kamap’ (Island of the rising sun), and the PNG Time rewinds back to another one hour ahead so you have an extra hour to explore the Island of Sun Kamap. Arawa town has been one of the center of attraction in the 1980s and one of the best mining townships in PNG ever been developed by the miner Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL). The latter recalls whilst the history lives on, the memorable Ako beach, Happy Valley Beach of Kieta, Arovo Island Beach Resort and now shining Pokpok Island are the best in making someone still love Arawa despite the crisis. To relive those good old memories, the Speaker for Bougainville House of Assembly; Hon. Simon Pentanu has converted his home on Pokpok island to a bedsitter to accommodate visitors and built extra two self-contained bungalows near his house on the island. He has plans to build jetty and add other amenities for visitor experience and comfort on the island.

The Arawa township have some lodges with facilities and amenities that are making the names for themselves and includes; Butterfly Inn, Gold Dust Inn, Arawa Guesthouse, Rising Sun Lodge, DJ Garden Lodge, Poonang Nava Inn, Arawa Travelers Inn, Arawa Women’s Centre, Hideout Transit Lodge and few others.

Currently, the tourists market in Buka is driven by Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) and with the interest to provide orderly visitor services, Mr. Zhon Bosco, a former BRA and musician has started the Bougainville Experience Tours and its going from success to success every year receiving visitors who have connection to Bougainville or those expatriates and families who have worked and lived in Arawa before and visiting Arawa to revitalize the lost and old memories. The company also provides logistics support for special interest groups as well as shore excursion logistics for Cruise and Expeditionary Ships that calls into Arawa and Buka. For tours and logistics support when in Bougainville, please visit their website for more information; www.bougtours.com

It is good to see some of the Bougainvilleans who fled to Australia and other countries during the crisis are now going back to visit their home province and connect with their families. Zhon Bosco’s company has a special package and market for Bougainvilleans who have interest to visit the island and meet with their families. The company provides logistical support services to visitors of all types as well as providing special tours to Panguna Mine Site, Pokpok Island, organizing home stays, cultural and WWII site seeing tours.

The accommodation in Arawa Township has a diverse range to accommodate for adventure and budget traveler to groups with the distribution types from home-stay to bed and breakfast or lodges that have five star like hotel standard facilities and amenities. The tourist or visitor flow into the island of Bougainville seems not consistent at the moment but with the operation of Aropa Airport which is serviced by both PNGair and Air Niugini presents little prospects of what is expected in tourist or visitor arrival and other tourism market segments will eventually market itself after VFR segment gets into full tourism business motion.

Accessibility into Bougainville (Buka and Arawa) being one of the main issue that are likely to cause setback for the tourism business contenders in Bougainville area. There have been several issues with air travel and most times flights have been cancelled by the airlines into Buka whilst Aropa airport in Arawa have been closed for sometimes due to varying reasons and technical issues. It is not about building another world class airport for the people of Bougainville to travel direct from AROB to overseas but making interconnecting flights between the New Guinea Islands cheaper with regular or competitive schedule fights out of Lae and POM to Bougainville will entail the expected success in tourism.

Alternatively, there is a need of convenient and regular passenger ferry services from Lae to Buka with technical stopovers and transits on the few of the townships of New Guinea Islands. The ferry and flight routes between Solomon Islands and Bougainville needs to be opened for tourism purposes and also link with the nearby Micronesian Islands with passenger ferry. There is undiscovered Siwai culture that needs accessibility to showcase for the interest of tourism. The only avenue for them now seems to be The Reed Festival which is staged annually in Arawa but Siwai culture has more to offer for tourism.

Buin is near to the Solomon Islands and there are traditional trade links and family intermarriages that dates back to centuries. The accessibility is one of the main issues the area have despite they have interest to develop tourism potentials which seems to be the livelihood support after cocoa and copra. There is massive WWII relics on the road to Siwai from Buin and most of the machines, guns and tankers have never damaged and still in good state. The famous Japanese Admiral Yamamoto’s Plane Crash site is also located near Buin together with Little Tokyo which is an underground military base for Japanese Forces. Now the area is covered with thick jungle.

The current flights from Port Moresby to Honiara, Fiji and Pohnpei were to have position Bougainville as one of their technical stopover or transit routes, there could be significant realm of tourism for Bougainvilleans. It could be technically impractical for the airline companies to consider Bougainville as stopover airport for their Pacific Island routes but there could be some prospects for the interest of tourism and airline companies out of the bigger picture.

The Bougainvilleans are leading the show in PNG with tourism as a way to improve living standards as well as seeing into it as a livelihood support. With the looming referendum voting for Autonomous Region of Bougainville on the verge, there are worries, anxieties and fears of what will happen but out of what already happened in Bougainville, the Bougainvilleans have developed a resilience pedigree which will never get over with referendum easily when tourism interest forms the foundation to rebound into greater new heights and prosperity awaits for Bougainvilleans into tourism.