Positive growth for visitor arrivals in April

BY LYNTON AARON FILIA

INTERNATIONAL visitation to Solomon Islands has shown double digit growth for the fourth month in a row, it is reported.

The Solomon Islands National Statistics Office (SINSO) this week revealed that international visitation for April 2018 increased by 11.8 percent over the corresponding month in 2017.

Figures SINSO released highlighted that 2,250 total of international visitation showed an increase of 237 over the 2,013 achieved in April 2017.

Australian visitor arrivals continues to dominate as the major source of marketing with a climbing 13 percentage from 2,689 to 3,038.

New Zealand figures increased 17 percent from 443 to 519.

Papua New Guinea figures increased from 377 to 492, an increase of 30.5 percent while US figures grew 19 percent from 341 to 409.

Interestingly, this year Japan visitation to Solomon Islands has climbed by 40 percent from 207 to 290, which shows potential of country’s market to Asia region.

With the Japanese’s positive result, CEO for the Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau (SIVB) Josefa ‘Jo’ Tuamoto attributed to renewed interest in the destination following on from the 75th anniversary of the Guadalcanal campaign last August.

European traffic also continued to build with 338 total recorded representing a 48.9 percent increase over the 227 figure achieved in 2017, according to the Global Travel Industry News.

The Global Travel Industry News also adds April result follows the destination’s best-ever first quarter result with collective visitor arrivals for Q1 2018 up 29 percent.

Solomon Islands is a sovereign country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania lying to the east of Papua New Guinea and northwest of Vanuatu and covering a land area of 28,400 square kilometres (11,000 sq mi).

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