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What a visa in minutes means for PNG tourism
For a visitor planning a trip to Papua New Guinea, the visa is the first step, and these days it can take minutes. That was where we started when the Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority (TPA) invited NiuPay to speak in the closing Digital Transformation session of the 2026 PNG Tourism Summit at APEC Haus.
Our Chief Operating Officer, Trevor Manokore, opened with a confession anyone in technology will recognise: outside the industry, few people know what we do. What counts, he said, is the difference technology makes to the person at the other end.
The first step of every trip
A few years ago, a visa to Papua New Guinea could take two to three weeks. Since early 2025, the Immigration and Citizenship Services Authority (ICSA) has used an AI-assisted visa processing system built with NiuPay. Around 95 per cent of applications, mostly tourist and business visas, are now decided in minutes, and immigration officers give their time to the cases that need a person’s judgement.
For tourism, a quick answer at that first step makes a real difference. People plan trips while flights and prices are moving, and a visa in minutes lets them book while they’re still excited about going.
It will matter even more for sports tourism. When the PNG Chiefs begin playing NRL home games in Port Moresby, thousands of fans, officials and media will arrive within the same few days, many deciding at short notice. A visa in minutes means a fan in Brisbane or Auckland can book on a whim and still make kick-off, and the country gets the full benefit of a big match day.
After the visa
TPA has done wonderful work showing the world where to stay and what to do, from the Highlands to the coast. The next step is making those experiences just as easy to book and pay for from overseas. When paying is simple, money reaches the operators and communities who run them, quickly and transparently.
We’d love to work on that with TPA and tourism operators. Thank you to TPA for the invitation, to our fellow panellists from the PNG Customs Service and the Department of Information and Communications Technology, and to the session’s moderator, Christopher Sean Vagalia.