TPA CEO, Eric Mossman-Uvovo has signed a death warrant for pilgrimage tourism across the Kokoda Trail.
The document was signed at a media conference at the start of the Kokoda Trail at Owers Corner on Tuesday, February 6.
The proposal for a new Kokoda Track Management Authority (KTMA) was secretly drafted in Canberra by a foreign enironment official during the Covid pandemic.
There was no consultation with tour operators or landowners – the two key stakeholders in the multi-million-dollar Kokoda tourism industry.
The Bill effectively transfers responsibility for the management of the Kokoda Trail from tourism to environment. It is not known whether CEO Mossman-Uvovo had Ministerial approval to transfer responsibility for PNGs highest profile tourism icon from his Minsterial charter.
As a result, it is destined to be choked by green tape which will inevitably limit the size of trek groups; decrease the number and capacity of campsites; declare areas such as the Brown River catchment as ‘environmentally sensitive‘ and limit access to it; etc. etc.
PNG will then become the only country in the world to allow its most popular tourism destination to be managed as an environment bureaucracy under the influence of aid-funded foreign officials, rather than as a commercial tourism enterprise for the economic benefit of traditional landowner communities.
It makes a mockery of PNGs 50th year of Independence!
Under the neo-colonial rule instituted since Canberra officials took control of the Trail in 2009 Kokoda tourism numbers have plummeted by 42 per cent which has translated into a cumulative loss of some $20 million in foregone wages, campsite fees and villager purchases.
During this time they have not been able to work out where campsites should be. They haven’t worked out how tour companies can book a site. They haven’t worked out how to build a single hygienic toilet anywhere. They haven’t worked out how to introduce a single micro-business initiative to help local villagers earn extra income. They have not installed a single environmental or military heritage interpretation sign (common in Australian national parks) anywhere across the 138 km length of the Trail. And so Kokoda tourism numbers keep falling!
A review of the industry would reveal that they have not generated any taxation income for PNG because they have been either too lazy to enforce compliance with the IPA Act and have turned a blind eye to the proliferation of illegal foreign tour companies.
Giving the Kokoda Trail away to foreign aid-funded influencers makes a mockery of PM Marape’s pledge to take back PNG during this significant anniversary year.
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