The Papua New Guinea Tourism Authority and I have been working on building a photo library of the destination over the past few years and the project is now starting to bare fruit. Drawing from what is the most comprehensive and professional Photo Library in the South Pacific (I know because I work with most of the other tourism authorities), a range of new, highly visual promotional collateral is now being rolled out, including trade displays, web sites, posters, brochures and advertisements. At the same time, media, local industry and travel agents are accessing the Photo Library over the internet, providing promotional opportunities for the destination that previously never existed.(ie there’s a travel editor sitting at his desk looking for a cover picture for his magazine or who needs to fill a hole in one of his pages. All he has to do is visit the library (www.pngphotos.com), find a picture he likes and download it. Great for the publication (they got the picture for free) and great for Papua New Guinea (it gets the publicity for free). The key to the library’s success is ensuring rapid access and that all of the images are of the same high standard in terms of file size, quality, model releases and copyright (all of which has been taken care of). Of course, it helps that the PNG tourism authority is well funded by the government and the country’s booming resource sector but, still, the library was built on solid foundations from the start and it’s likely to evolve and serve the tourism authority and Papua New Guinea for many years to come. Their new web site (above) demonstrates how they are putting their images to good use. Click on it to have a look inside.