AN AWARENESS and promotional program was conducted in Taro, Choiseul province late last month.
Qoso Carlmarx, the tourism officer for Choiseul Province said, this promotional awareness was a successful one, and it’s part of the ground breaking process in fostering tourism development in Choiseul province.
He said, over the past years Choiseul province in terms of tourism development still at its early stage, meaning many places needs awareness, identification, assessments, effective communication, accessibility, infrastructure development all those needs support from the responsible body.
“However, Choiseul Provincial Government (CPG) prioritizes tourism in the plan in reduction to logging industry for the next 10 years.
“CPG sees tourism industry has the potential to lead economic development and revenue base in Choiseul province is a futuristic opportunity for the people of Choiseul. Therefore, I salute the Choiseul Provincial Government in recognizing the importance of Tourism industry.”
He said, the promotional awareness attracted large number of people with 30 participants are Dorcas Adventist women and the public.
He said, Choiseul Provincial Tourism Division also carried out two (2) Information Sharing/ Awareness during international youth day celebration for the past months and it was a successful one.
“It clearly shows that most people in Choiseul are now prepare to venture in this amazing industry.
“Thus, Choiseul province will venture to this amazing industry by 2016 -2017 with more awareness programs, tours, and site assessments, identification of the potential local operators, potential sites, future opportunities, product development and finally the funding assistance rendered to Choiseul Province.”
He said, the Choiseul Province Tourism Strategic Plan for 2016 highlighted connection between Isabel and Western province is a must in fostering tourism development in the country.
“This industry is ONE CONCEPT industry which recognizes tourism is made up of various sectors or sub industries such as accommodation, transportation, sales and leisure.
“It also recognises that tourism product is composite in the nature which regards to the views of the travellers.
Therefore, liaise with other provincial officers is vital, that all officers should establish the link “Togetherness”, in fostering tourism development in shores of Solomon’s.”
He said, Choiseul Provincial Government (CPG) acknowledged the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT) for the support being rendered to the provincial tourism office as the top-up for the office equipment and rolling support in the nearby future.
Tourism in Choiseul Province – in brief
Choiseul is a sparsely populated island and has a lot to offer in terms of its natural wildness. Because of its close proximity to Bougainville it has high diversity and endemism of both flora and fauna compared to any other island grouping in the country.
For example, 3 out of the 8 native rats found in the Solomon Islands are only found in Choiseul and Bougainville. Choiseul has 17 species of flying foxes and as such it is regarded as the centre of secondary radiation of the Monkey faced bats in the South Pacific (Flannery, 1995).
Similarly, the same can be said about its marine environment. The 2004 Solomon Islands Rapid Ecological Assessment indicated that some of the best coral covers and fish abundance are found in the reefs around Choiseul (Green et al., 2006).
The central portion of the island on both north and south consists of long 12 narrow beaches, while on the northwest and the southeast have considerable large forests of mangroves along its coast and extensive barrier reefs.
Some places on the southern part of the island have picturesque limestone islands that rise out of the blue water with deep passages between the islands.
