Cultural tourism, soft adventure, birdwatching, diving and historical tourism are identified as the greatest potential areas for growth in Papua New Guinea. Developing niche market tourism has the potential to attract an extra 40,000 holiday arrivals annually to Papua New Guinea by 2026 and 120,000 visitors by 2030.

Holiday visitors to Papua New Guinea in 2020 totaled 3,399 - an 87.5% decrease from 2019 which recorded 25,199 tourists. All tourists arriving in PNG in 2020 were by air. No cruise visitors were recorded due to the government's ban on cruise ships entering the nation's sea ports.

Notable dishes

·         Mumu is regarded as the national dish of Papua New Guinea. 

·         Chicken pot is a dish consisting of chicken that has been stewed with mixed vegetables and coconut cream.

·         Kokoda is a dish consisting of fish that is cooked in a lime-coconut sauce.

In Papua New Guinea you'll come face to face with some of the oldest continuing culture on the planet. You'll mainly meet Melanesian people though some areas are also home to descendants of Polynesian and Micronesian settlers from across the Pacific islands.

There is existing collaboration between Papua New Guinea and other countries. Papua New Guinea is part of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) forum. There is a thriving community of international expertise who live and work in the country.

Over 100,000 people of various nationalities also live in Papua New Guinea, representing over 1% of its total population.  Australian and Chinese people make up the majority of various nationalities.