THE NEW Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism says resources owners are important partners in tourism development.
In his presentation during a Tourism consultation early this year, Andrew Nihopara who was then a private consultant said tourism development work plan can be effective if resources owners are involved.
He added that cooperation by stakeholders to support the government in its endeavour to develop the local tourism sector is also important.
Mr Nihopara also stressed that creating the tourism management strategy and tourism management plan for effective partnership will complement the national tourism strategy framework.
“A Collective effort to develop the tourism sector in a more sustainable way is crucial, Mr Nihopara said.
Last week this paper held an interview with Mr Nihopara for the first time after he took up the Permanent Secretary post at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
When asked about his vision for tourism in Solomon Islands, he said the Ministry of Culture and Tourism would like to see the tourism industry grow to become a key economic driver for the country and involve the participation of resource owners in a sustainable manner.
Mapping out his intervention, Nihopara stressed that his ministry is aiming at facilitating a close working relationship between the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, other tourism authorities (SIVB) and the tourism industry private sector as well as creating strong linkage between the various Divisions within the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to support tourism product development.
He added that other priority area is to facilitate mechanism for key SIG ministries to work together for common goal of driving development forward for the tourism sector, through coordinated infrastructure and development activities.
Mr Nihopara said one important task for his ministry is to facilitate opportunities for more tourism related investments in the country and create opportunities for public private partnerships in the tourism sector.
“While the traditional source markets such as Australia, New Zealand and North America will continue to remain our top priority markets in the long term, other key tourism markets that we should start looking at would be Europe, Southeast Asia and the Pacific itself.
“PNG and Fiji are fine examples of regional markets that we can target,” he said.
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