Tourists from cruise ships traveling into Alotau, Milne Bay Province, can now experience an aerial view of the township and outer islands following the launch of a helicopter service recently.
The chopper service is operated by HeliScope PNG and will offer three different tours for tourists.
This service provides a 12-minute tour, 25-minute tour and a 40-minute tour towards East Cape, showing cruise line guests the beautiful scenery of the province.
HeliScope PNG chief executive officer Giles Rooney told Loop PNG that Milne Bay is one of the areas that they feel is really untapped as far as tourism goes, therefore they want to look at how they can boost income for the local area.
Rooney said during discussions with P&O Cruise Lines, they gathered that there’s not much to do in Alotau for tourists.
This service, which began this month, has proven very popular so far with the aim to build international tourism into the area.
“What we are looking to do in the next year is to build that business to a point where we get 100 to 200 passengers a day.”
Rooney stressed that the bonus for the service is that tourists will get to share their experience and pictures on social media to attract more tourists to the area.
“It’s a free advertising for the area so we are hoping that that’s going to build and bring in direct flights from Australia and possibly Asia.
“It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world so it doesn’t matter which tour you do, you are in for a really good trip.”
He said at the moment there’s no real service that gets tourists out to the islands quickly.
They found through research that most people avoid going to Milne Bay because of the travel required to get to the outer islands.
He said with efficient chopper service out to the islands, they are hoping to boost tourism in the province.