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Mrs Thomas (aussie on pngbd & kokoda websites) says a big THANK YOU to Post Courier – Promoting PNG
CLICK HERE for a link to the Post Courier article:
It was indeed a nice surprise to be asked for an interview by the Post Courier for inclusion in Focus Thursday edition 4th December, 2003.
Thank you Post Courier and Malum Nalu for the nice article and for taking the time to interview me.
Source – Post Courier Newspaper 4th December, 2003 – Everyday people with Malum Nalu:
If there is any one individual who deserves a medal for promoting Papua New Guinea, it has to be Gail Thomas. Mrs Thomas, a resident of PNG for almost 30 years, started her own website http://www.pngbd.com (PNG Tourism & Business Directory) some three years ago as a means of promoting the country amidst all the adverse publicity.
Promoting PNG on the Net
The site has since grown to become the biggest and best business and tourism website about PNG.
It has more information, more photographs and more articles than any other website on PNG.
Statistics for the month of November are simply staggering: over two million hits and over 60,000 actual visitors.
That translates to over 2000 visitors per day!
Actual computer-generated figures supplied by http://www.pngbd.com this week show that the website had 2,138,535 hits and 64,963 visitors from all over the world for the month of November alone.
Net surfers from up to 122 different countries visit http://www.pngbd.com, according to statistics, with the most popular being: Australia, United States of America, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Netherlands, Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, US Military, Germany, Singapore, Non-Profit Organisations, Poland, Italy, France, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Austria, Philippines, Belgium, Thailand, Israel, South Africa, Fiji, Indonesia and people living and working in Papua New Guinea.
The website came to exist through Mrs Thomas ? who has lived and worked in PNG since 1972 with her pilot husband John.
This includes stints in Mount Hagen for 12 months, Lae from 1973 till 1986 when she returned with her family to Australia, a return to Port Moresby in 1988 and ? with the exception of a transfer to Goroka for two years ? she has remained in Port Moresby ever since. PNG Tourism & Business Directory was launched in 2000 with a mission to provide a professional and well-maintained website that promotes, fosters and advances business and tourism in PNG.
It provides a range of tools and information that is unique to PNG.
Mrs Thomas started http://www.pngbd.com with the aim of putting something positive back into the marketplace.'Whenever I would visit home (Australia) and mention where I lived,? she recalls, 'people would immediately tell me all the negatives but no-one could ever tell me anything nice about PNG. 'That's when my journey began'! she says.
I had Jimmy working for me who is very talented in all aspects of computers but I doubt anyone in PNG has the skill base he has for Internet-related work.
'Because he is also a Delphi computer programmer, he was able to make PNGBD interactive in areas such as the flight schedule, exchange rates etc.'
Webmaster and IT expert Jimmy, originally from Indonesia, joined Mrs Thomas' company to write a Telephone Management Software package, TMS, which presently operates in most high-profile offices.
After he completed version 3.1, it was then he designed and implemented the architecture of http://www.pngbd.com Papua New Guinea Tourism & Business Directory, she says.
I just kept thinking up more ideas and Jimmy set them up for me.
I think of him as the architect/engineer and our staff, including myself, are the interior decorators ? we load in the content.
We also host it on our own server in conjunction with Jimmy, only now as a partner not an employee, which is based in the USA.
This also accounts for the speed pngbd opens.As Jimmy also maintains the web-hosting business, we are able to make sure it is accessible 365 days of the year 24 hours a day.?
Features of http://www.pngbd.com include promotion and advertising, a business directory of company listings, daily exchange rates from the major banks in PNG, share prices from the Port Moresby Stock Exchange and an income-tax calculator based on the latest Internal Revenue Commission tax rates.
Mrs Thomas believes their website is becoming so popular ?mainly because we do not concentrate on any one area?.
'We have something for everyone,' she says.
I dare anyone reading this to go to http://www.google.com and search on any subject matter that relates to PNG.
Mrs Thomas admits the website could grow even further if only they could attract more advertising.
Last year we received a letter from TPA thanking us for the support PNGBD had given to promoting tourism in PNG, she says.
We have also helped many tourists in answering emails and pointing them in the right direction when we could not answer their queries ourselves.
I read with interest comments made by Aaron Hayes (in last week's Everyday People) regarding eco-tourism and the village accommodation that is built but no-one knows about their whereabouts.
As with Aaron, we have the facilities through our website to promote anything someone would like advertised.
'We also have the volume of people coming to our website to ensure it is read.'
The website also has:
- an interactive flight schedule to facilitate easy flight checks; helps guides and porters find employment and trekking opportunities;
- an active online community forum with over 2650 users from PNG, Australia, USA, New Zealand and numerous other countries; and
- a new photo gallery that contains thousands of photos.
'This year we were proud to have organised the Bloomhill Cancer Care trek which included Steve Ovett, the former Olympic gold medallist,' Mrs Thomas says.
'Hopefully, through people like Steve visiting our shores, other big names will follow.'
Mrs Thomas says: Through PNGBD we have the ability to make it a one-stop shop with something for everyone.
Please help me to help the world at large to know more about Papua New Guinea and what it has to offer.
I could go on forever but I think this gets the message across.
Throughout the many years I have spent in PNG, I have been renowned for helping people, and now through my legacy to PNG, http://www.pngbd.com, I am certainly on the road to achieving much more than I ever dreamed possible.
Help me to help you, the people of Papua New Guinea?to show the world what PNG has to offer and perhaps business and tourism will follow.
Mrs Thomas can be contacted on email: gail@pngbd.com
Gail_with_Hagen_Axe_in_Back.jpgWhen I first 'registered as a user' on pngbd in 2000, I was suddenly faced with having to think of a pen name or use my own name.
At the time I was a little nervous about the internet and decided on the pen name 'aussie' – coz after all I am an Australian and to be honest it was the first name that came into my head.
The Managing Partner where I work once remarked….'how original'….
As a result of the article in the Post Courier, I guess you can say I have been UNVEILED and as you now all know the woman behind the aussie nickname, its time to come out out in the open.
I have enjoyed my journey in creating a website on Papua New Guinea that I can indeed be proud of.
I have worked long hours for very little reward, but its your visits and the hits we receive that really make my day and keep me going knowing there is really a need here in PNG for a website such as pngbd.
When I see more and more people logging on, I know that I am reaching more and more people and sooner or later people will start to think of PNG as a possible tourist and business destination. I cannot change the way people think, but I can try in my own small way to make a difference to the country that has paid my wages since 1972.
We 'do' have at present 'law and order problems' but it really doesnt affect our everyday lives as people who live here will surely tell anyone who cares to listen.
I still go to work each day; my husband still enjoys a beer at the local Aero Club with his mates; we still go out to dinner whenever we wish and apart from our level of awareness ie always being on the alert, we live as normal a life as anywhere else in the world.
The people I work with head for the Yacht Club and out on the waters of Port Moreby on a regular basis; people still play sport; drink at their favourite clubs much like anywhere else in the world.
Just this week I welcomed back to PNG a former Kokoda Trekker, Geoff Campbell who along with another three of his buddies from the Sunshine Coast went surfing at Nusa Island Retreat in Kavieng.
They came, they enjoyed and on Thursday night at the Gateway Hotel where our journalist Alison Anis, Webmaster Jimmy Harlingdong and myself caught up with them, they could not stop talking about the 'fantatic' time they had.
So much so, they are even talking about returning next year only this time to head off to Vanimo for another surfing adventure.
Now I ask anyone reading this….would Geoff visit Papua New Guinea and keep coming back if he had such a terrible time during his visits.
Geoff Campbell & his mates at the Gateway Hotel Thursday, 4th December, 2003:
CLICK HERE to view photographs of Geoff Campbell and his Bloomhill Kokoda Trek 28th September to the 6th October, 2003:
Gateway_Hotel_41203.jpg
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