The National Statistics Office has recorded a total of 1,667 international arrivals in the second quarter of this year.
The latest International Arrivals bulletin was released on Friday last week.
Government Statistician Douglas Kimi confirmed there was a total of 1,667 in the second quarter, an increase of 59.7 percent compared to the previous quarter.
“’This is an increase of 59.7 percent compared to the previous quarter. But compared to the same quarter a year ago, this is an increase of 124.7 percent.”
Returning residents made up 76.6% of arrivals for the second quarter of 2022.
This was followed by Visitors with 21.6% of arrivals and the remaining 1.8% were Intending residents.
“Visitor arrivals for the second quarter increased by 30.9% to 360 visitors, compared to the first quarter 2022 figure of 275 visitors.
“There was also an increase of 103.4% in visitor arrivals compared to the same quarter in 2021.”
Arrivals by country of residence for the second quarter 2022 showed that Australia (45.8%) recorded the largest group of visitors amongst other country visitors to the Solomon Islands.
Mr Kimi said although there was 165 Australian in the second quarter 2022, this reflected a decrease of 6.3% compared to the first quarter of 2022 figure of 176.
The next largest group of visitors were from Other Asia (13.9%) followed by Japan (13.1%), China (10.8%), United States of America (6.9%), Other Country (3.3%), New Zealand (3.1%), Fiji (1.7%), Other Pacific and Other Europe recording 0.6% respectively and PNG (0.3%).
Meanwhile, visitor arrivals by month showed that April recorded the highest number of arrivals in the second quarter of 2022 with 166 visitors.
This was followed by month of May with a total of 99 visitors and June the least, with 95 visitors.
A significant decline in international arrivals was recorded since restrictions were imposed on International flights by the Solomon Islands Government towards the end of March 2020, as part of the State of Public Emergency (SOPE) response towards preventing Solomon Island residents and citizens from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The SOPE has now been lifted and from July 1, 2022, international flights have slowly resumed.
