BY INDY MAEALASIA
Ongoing limited land access and lack of investment in tourism facilities remain major barriers to the country’s tourism sector.
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)- Solomon Islands Threshold Program (SITP) Resident Director, Charles Jakosa highlighted this during a press conference yesterday at the United States Conference room at Heritage Park Hotel
Beside praising the country’s attractive landscape and people’s hospitality, Mr Jakosa said limited access to land remains one of the stumbling blocks for tourism investors.
“We all know that land in Solomon Islands is highly contested with lots of questions about who owns land, who has access to land, who has the ability to control land so as an investor, people are reluctant to utilize their money and develop land because you know today you might have a right but next year maybe somebody says you don’t and then you lose your investment,” Jakosa said.
With lack of tourism facilities, Jakosa explained how vital these facilities are for visitors and gave an example on how necessary services like cash machine, tourism information and SIM card should be provided at the airports.
Identifying these stumbling blocks, Jakosa said they aim to solve these issues by working closely with the government and other partners through their Accessing Land for Tourism Investment Facilitation Project (ALTIF).
According to MCC, this project in turn aims to help increase job opportunities, achieve foreign exchange benefits, increase productivity and purchase of local goods.
MCC is now going to work closely with few local communities in the Western, Central and Guadalcanal provinces to develop land for tourism activities.
