Bougainville has gone through many turbulent periods over the past 100 years, not least the Civil War of the 1990s, which claimed as many as 20,000 lives.
The government is now looking to develop the economy and has its eye on mining as an immediate solution as it strives for independence.
However, for at least one Bougainvillean, tourism in the region is more than just a promise.
Zhon Bosco Miriona has been running his business Bougainville Experience Tours for years, and he spoke to RNZ Pacific about the sector now and its prospects.
Zhon Bosco Miriona: I started the company in 2010. But in 2002 the Bougainville government had sent me as a youth to represent Bougainville at the Melanesian Arts and Cultural Festival in Fiji, so that is where got interested in tourism.
I was one of the people that had joined the rebels to fight against the system in the Bougainville War. So after that, I went down there [Fiji], and that way I got interested in the tourism after the mining had an issue with our people in Bougainville. So that is why I saw that tourism can help Bougainville better than mining.
Don Wiseman: What sort of tourism?
ZBM: At the moment we are running tourism for people that are coming for culture, history, World War Two and the Bougainville War, trekking, bird watching, and even people just want to come to take pictures on photography tours, and fish, game fishing. And also, we are looking after super yachts and small expedition vessels, like the New Zealand owned, Heritage Adventure, which comes once a year, but I think it’s going to be coming here twice a year.
DW: Now when you when you see photos and film at Bougainville – it’s a spectacular place, isn’t it?. You can see the appeal for tourists. But the problem, I guess, is getting people there. It’s difficult, isn’t it?
ZBM: The main problem for people, especially Papua New Giuneans that want to come to Bougainville – and the biggest killer in the tourism industry – is the air fares. You will spend a big amount of money that you can do around the world, from maybe Australia [and] New Zealand, to travel around the world and back to your country. That is the amount of money that we spend from Port Moresby to reach Bougainville. Around 5000 kina (about NZ$2000) – too much.
But we have a airport that is coming up – our Kieta Airport, which is under construction now – maybe by end of 2026 it will open.
We will have flights coming in from the Solomon Islands so that will be a big bonus for our tourism industry in Bougainville. We will have clients coming to especially Fiji or Australia, come up to Honira or Munda, and it is like 30 minutes or 25 minutes flight from Munda to Kieta.
DW: How many of the tourists you get are from overseas?
ZBM: At the moment, we used to have, like, previously used to have, like, one or two every quarter, just after we started. But now we are getting, like, every month tourists coming in. Like, not really big numbers, but in a small way, but it’s increasing like five to 10 a month
.
DW: And there’s enough accommodation as numbers increase?
ZBM: No, that is one issue. But people are building more. We have a new hotel that’s this coming up in Arawa, built by a local company.
It is good that they are going to have a four storey accommodation in Arawa, and we need to build some more in Buka, because at the moment, accommodation is going to be the problem, along the years that we will be getting more people in.
Also we are trying to look to encourage our guest houses, or the lodges, to put more rooms into their accommodation.
Zhon Bosco Miriona says people visit Bougainville for a range of reasons, including the culture, history, World War Two and the Bougainville War, trekking, bird watching. Photo: Supplied
DW: Now Bougainville, of course, has had a turbulent history going back a long way, but I guess, most particularly the recent Civil War.
ZBM: A lot of people that are coming in are interested about the history of Bougainville from the colonial era, or before the colonists came.
There were people that came up looking for gold and stuff like that. And lot of people are coming here for the history, about the war, about even why Bougainville went into war and how we stopped the war.
But I would like to thank the government and the people of New Zealand for your assistance from the troops and peace monitoring and all these things.
We also have New Zealand police still around here in Bougainville. So thank you very much the people of New Zealand for being with us after we went through this conflict.
DW: Bougainville is on the verge of independence, at least as far as your government’s concerned. We don’t quite know what the people in Port Moresby are thinking at this stage, do we? But how is that going to impact your business?
ZBM: I think the Bougainville people – we have had enough of the war and all this.
We are peace loving people so we do not want to have any war again. But the thing, especially for our independence, that is up to the politicians. We already voted for the referendum, we told the world that we want to go and have our own country.
It is now between our government and the Papua New Giunea government to give us what we have wanted. People might say, ‘Oh, I think if the referendum failed, people will go back to war’.
No, we do not want to go back to war. We want just the world to recognise us, and then we can have our own county.
But we will be with PNG, working together, like what Papua New Guinea is doing with Australia, after Australia gave them the independence. It is just a political thing, but the relationship will be always be there.
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