Visitor Arrivals to Solomon Islands Jump 23.4%

The Solomon Islands has reported a 23.4% increase in the number of international visitor arrivals for the first two months of the year.

Official Solomon Islands government statistics show a combined number of 3,362 international visitor arrivals in January and February 2016, 23.4% more than the 2,724 total achieved during the same period in 2015.

Double digit growth was achieved in all the destination’s top four source markets – Australia, U.S., Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.

Australian visitation - up by 23.9% from 1,090 to 1,351 – represented 40.1% of total arrivals.

Arrivals from the U.S. however constituted the biggest increase for the period with the 275 figure recorded in 2016 marking a 41 increase over the 195 total achieved in 2015.

Papua New Guinea visitor arrivals grew by 12.4% from 169 to 240 while New Zealand arrivals rose by 10.6% from 169 to 187.

“There’s no doubt about it, this is a fantastic start to 2016 and the efforts we have gone to across 2015 and in 2106, hand in hand with our industry partners, and our adherence to a highly strategic, long range marketing plan are beginning to pay dividends,” said Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau CEO, Josefa ‘Jo’ Tuamoto. “This year while we will continue to maintain strong profile in our key source markets we are also taking the message further afield with plans to raise profile in Asia, the United Kingdom and Europe.”

The NTO’s long range strategy includes the recent appointment of a Germany-based representative to assist with UK and continental Europe promotional activity, with a strong focus on promoting the destination’s niche tourism offerings and in particular diving, culture and bird watching.

US activity has also been bolstered with the appointment of a PR/marketing company which is already proactively planning visits by select U.S. travel writers and representing the NTO at several key dive-oriented events. 

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