An assessment of wildlife tourism prospects in Papua New Guinea

ABSTRACT

This paper examines wildlife tourism in Papua New Guinea (PNG) from both a demand and supply perspective. PNG, a developing nation, situated just north of Australia, is located in a ‘biodiversity hotspot’ and its wildlife comprises a large number of species or groups of species, including many which are endemic to the nation, that would appear, on face value, to be highly attractive to tourists. An assessment is made of the wildlife tourism prospects for PNG based on the sustainable use of wildlife concept. Analysis of characteristics relating to ‘wildlife tourism value’ of selected animal groups suggests that the best prospects for wildlife tourism lie with birds, marine wildlife and, perhaps, some terrestrial invertebrates. The paper also examines the potential impacts that wildlife threatening processes such as hunting, loss of wildlife habitat and, in particular, global climate change, could have on the future of wildlife tourism in PNG.

KEYWORDS:

• Wildlife tourism
• Papua New Guinea
• diving
• climate change
• sustainable use of wildlife

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Kevin Markwell is an Associate Professor in the School of Business and Tourism at Southern Cross University, Australia. He has utilised social construction theory to understand the complex and often contradictory relationships between tourism, leisure and nature and has published on a range of related topics including ecotourism attraction systems, artificial reefs and sustainable diving, nature interpretation, tourism constructions of nature and human–animal relations. His latest book is the edited collection, Animals and tourism: Understanding complex relationships (2015, Channel View Publications).