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Congratulations to Malum Nalu of TPA fame who recently returned from a trekking tour of Kokoda with some Aussie trekkers. You should now expect people from all corners of the globe to be coming to you from now with questions on Kokoda, trekking, the people, culture, the triumphs and hardships. And good on you Gail (Aussie) for inviting and supporting Malum and to TPA CEO Peter Vincent for allowing Malum to go and sample one of PNG's best known natural tourism icons – the Kokoda Trail (or was that supposed to be Trek?).
PNG needs more national journalist to take an interest in travelling writing and to write good positive stories about the many unique natural features of their beautiful country, people and culture. In this business, word of mouth is the best form of promotion and tourists will tend to believe a good positive travel news article more than an expensive, glossy looking advertisement on a travel magazine.
Tourists will be comfortable also with your personal stories or your travel experiences because you have been there and done that. We all like to talk about Paradise and yet many people do not realise that Paradise is not a place or destination but rather a moment in time and a feeling or experience. This is what tourists look for in PNG when they travel. They are not here to take anything away from you.
All PNG journalists owe their country something – pick up your pen and paper or get in front of that computer and write something about your own corner of PNG.
Every week, the newspapers should be receiving at least 20 different travel news articles from contributing journalists throughout the country. That's if 20 different journalists from 20 different provinces decided to get behind tourism promotion. It may be a small contribution but I can assure you, something out there somewhere will read your article and one day, they will decide to visit our shores.
One of the great things about this job (tourism promotion) that keeps me going is when tourists tell me they have decided to come to PNG after reading articles that I have written about destinations in PNG, in some unnamed magazine, newspaper and website, from a corner of this globe. It gives one a certain feeling of power. It gives me a great feeling of achievement. But we need more travel writers. Sadly, today, the only person who has consistently kept at it is Malum and I personally would like to give him credit for what he does.
My mind goes back to the days when we had those great creative feature and travel writers like Loujaya Kouza, Biga Lebasi, Frank Sengi and Joycelyn Leahy. I would like to invite them back to join me and Malum and others like the young Esther Haro, writing from Madang as a journalism student but already showing a great flair for writing. So folks, pick up that pen or jump in front of that computer. If you have a story to tell, tell it as it is. The world is waiting to hear your story.
Many thanks!
Steven Mago
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