Pacific Digital Tourism Champions Training Program a Success in Papua New Guinea

The Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO) successfully concluded the highly anticipated Pacific Digital Champions training program in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on Friday 14th July, 2023 . This initiative is part SPTOs Digital Transformation Project (Phase 2), made possible through funding from the New Zealand government.

The Pacific Digital Champions training program aligns with the SPTO Digital Strategy and aims to empower individuals with the necessary skills and knowledge to navigate the digital landscape successfully. As the first pillar of the Digital Strategy framework, this program emphasizes capacity-building, training, education, and knowledge sharing.

Serving as the groundwork of the Digital Strategy, this program emphasizes capacity-building, training, education, and knowledge sharing. By investing in the long-term capability development of participants, SPTO aims to equip NTOs and workshop participants with the necessary tools to embrace digital technologies and significantly enhance their contributions to the tourism sector.

To facilitate the digital transformation training specifically for Papua New Guinea, digital trainer Russell Easther, an esteemed expert in digital marketing and training, presented  the program to an audience of over two-dozen tourism industry members – joining physically and virtually at the prestigious Lamana Hotel, July 13-14th.

The PNG Tourism Promotion Authority CEO, Mr. Eric Uvovo, extended his appreciation to the SPTO, “I would like to thank the SPTO for initiating the Pacific Digital Champions training program, and assisting the PNG Tourism Promotion Authority facilitate the workshop for members of our Papua New Guinea tourism industry.  Increased digital transformation of the tourism industry through training is a key goal in Papua New Guinea’s Tourism Sector Development Plan (2022-2026).   We are encouraged by the positive feedback from the industry members who attended the two-days digital marketing training, and I am confident this opportunity will help enhance their businesses.”

SPTO CEO Christopher Cocker commends the SPTO member National Tourism Organisations (NTOs) and their respective tourism industry members that recently completed the training in New Caledonia and Timor Leste. We appreciate the NTOs of Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, American Samoa and their tourism industry, who will benefit from skills development and engaging interactions with our specialist trainers. Participants will gain valuable insights into creating compelling content for their websites and social media platforms and establishing keywords for their search engine optimisations.

“SPTO is committed to driving digital excellence in the Pacific tourism industry as part of our efforts to support our members post COVID, and the Pacific Digital Champions training program serves as a crucial step toward realizing this vision. We look forward to witnessing the positive impact of this initiative as we collectively embrace digital transformation and shape a prosperous future for Pacific tourism,” Mr Cocker stated.

About SPTO:

Established in 1983 as the Tourism Council of the South Pacific, the Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO) is the mandated organisation representing Tourism in the region. Its 21 Government members are American Samoa, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Rapa Nui, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu Wallis and Futuna, and the People’s Republic of China. In addition to government members, the Pacific Tourism Organisation also enlists a private sector membership base. You can learn more about SPTO here

Queries may be directed to aniumataiwalu@spto.org