Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture Tobias Kulang has welcomed the new helicopter service flight tours in Milne Bay Province.
Tourists from cruise ships traveling into Alotau will experience an aerial view of the township and outer islands following the launch of the chopper 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.
Kulang said this is an exciting addition to what Alotau can provide for tourism in PNG.
“We are getting almost weekly visits from the cruise ships now and the important thing with cruise tourism is that you have to have a volume of activities.
“The tourists are on the ground for up to eight hours and you need to have a range of activities to keep them busy,” Kulang said.
He stressed that apart from cultural activities, the visits to the craft shops, museums and war memorials, it’s also important that they get an aerial view of the place.
What the aerial view offers is the historic significance of Alotau during the World War 2.
Through the aerial experience, tourists and participants will get a better appreciation of what actually took place in Alotau during the WW2.