Kumul Lodge, a tourist accommodation and birdwatching haven, is
nestled in the Highlands in Enga Province, Papua New Guinea. When
Kim Arut and her husband started the business in 1999, they listed
him as the sole company director; she intended to retain her job at
Telekom. But when his health began to fail in 2006, doctors advised
that he move back to their Mount Hagen home, at a lower altitude
than the lodge and away from the thin mountain air. Left with
little choice, Ms Arut has been running the business ever
since.
Registering a business in Papua New Guinea is a laborious and
costly process, taking an average of eight weeks. Ms Arut and her
husband were assisted with a grant of 70,000 Papua New Guinean kina
(PGK), or about $27,000, from the provincial government, which went
towards building the initial six rooms and establishing their
business. They now have 23 rooms, catering for up to 69 people
during their August peak.
"In 2004 we had a couple of visitors from Lonely Planet
who stayed with us and commented on the amazing birdlife. They
added Kumul Lodge to their guidebook," Ms Arut says. That's when
business really began. Since then, visitors have been contacting
them through the Government's tourism office in Port Moresby. The
office had so many enquiries that it eventually helped Kumul Lodge
set up its own website.
Kumul Lodge (which means bird of paradise lodge) is the second
most visited accommodation spot for birdwatching in Papua New
Guinea. It's a quiet place, popular with international tourists
interested in relaxing, trekking the highlands and taking in
nature. Birdwatchers will often name the new birds they see at
Kumul Lodge, update the list of species in the area and send it
back to Ms Arut to pass on to new visitors.
There is some competition coming up, one hour from Kumul Lodge.
But Ms Arut is confident that her business offers a unique
experience. "The visitors that come to Kumul Lodge don't want a
television. We don't allow drinking of alcohol either…we don't want
to scare the birds away as they are bringing our international
visitors."
Growing business
"The business would fall apart if I wasn't there," she admits.
Her husband often remarks at her success, asking her, "What are you
doing? I don't know - but whatever it is, it gets us a big name."
Ms Arut says he wouldn't know how she runs the business at all.
Ms Arut took over operations in 2006, at a time when group
travellers started visiting. Most of her guests are from Austria,
Finland, France, Germany, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the
United States, in groups of 10, 12 or 15 people. There are also
many visitors from Australia, although they tend to be individual
travellers. "With the global financial crisis I think many from the
United States are not booking to come this year. So far, we still
have bookings from the UK and South Africa," she says.
As at March 2009, she charges an average of PGK155 ($60) a night
for a double room, with guests staying on average three to four
days. This brings in some PGK900,000 ($350,000) annually - enough
to support Ms Arut, her husband and their four children, and put a
little aside for upgrading the lodge each year.
Growth in the community
In 2007, Ms Arut helped to organize a workshop funded by the
International Finance Corporation (IFC) to develop a strategy for
tourism in Papua New Guinea. IFC, the Tourism Promotion Authority
and the Minister for Tourism all gathered at Kumul Lodge, along
with other government departments and guest-house owners.
She wants to bring in tourism experts to help raise the
standards at Kumul Lodge, but says the villagers don't like being
told what to do by someone from outside. So she does a lot of
on-the-job training herself. She'd like to complete a business
management course, she says, but doesn't yet have anyone to look
after operations while she does the training.
Kumul Lodge employs 15 staff, all local villagers, and pays them
fortnightly, even in quiet periods. Most of her employees are
women, who cook, clean and tend to the rooms. "When the
international visitors come, they go into the kitchen and try to
teach my cousin [the chef who manages the kitchen] how to cook,"
says Ms Arut. "We have had some nice international buffet meals
that way!"
Kumul Lodge pays land fees of PGK10 ($4) per guest to the
adjoining landowners and tries to educate them on the importance of
the birds to business so they don't harm the very animals the
guests are paying to see.
Building on opportunities
The peak tourist season runs from June to September, and takes
in the Mount Hagen cultural show in August. Every year this season
brings in enough funds to upgrade the lodge. In 2008, for example,
they extended a room. Kumul Lodge cannot meet demand at peak times
and would like to expand further, but they lack the funds. They
also need to install a water supply, fencing and solar power to
replace the current system of boiling water over wood fires for
heating and showers.
They also plan to improve communications by installing a
wireless phone, when they can afford the cost. Until then, without
an email or Internet connection, during peak season Ms Arut
collects visitors' messages and emails them to their friends and
family from her computer in Mount Hagen. She also prints the
responses via email and takes them back to the visitors at Kumul
Lodge.