Fourteen Thousand Visitor Arrivals Recorded in Second Quarter of 2025

The total number of visitor arrivals for the second quarter of 2025 was 13,994, an increase of 21 percent compared to the previous quarter.

The report released on Friday 29th August said compared to the same quarter a year ago, total arrivals increased by 11.8%.

Returning residents comprised the largest entrance, comprising 51.8% of all arrivals for the second quarter of 2025. Visitors recorded 47.7% of all arrivals, and the remaining, less than 1.0% were intending residents.

Visitor arrivals for the second quarter increased by 19.0% to 6,681 visitors, compared to the first quarter 2025 figure of 5,612 visitors.

From the second quarter of 2024 to the second quarter of 2025, visitor arrivals increased by 3.6% in visitor arrivals.

Arrivals by country of residence for the second quarter of 2025 showed that visitors from Australia comprised the largest (31.1%) group of visitors to the Solomon Islands.

This was an increase of 32.2% in arrivals representing 2,076 Australian visitors in the second quarter of 2025, compared to the first quarter of 2025 figure of 1,570.

The next largest group of visitors was from China (13.3%), followed by Other Asian Countries (9.6%), the United States of America (8.9%), Fiji (7.3%), New Zealand (7.1%), Papua New Guinea (6.7%), Other Pacific Countries (4.1%), Other European Countries (3.9%), Vanuatu (3.2%), Japan and United Kingdom (1.5%), Other Countries (1.2%), and less than 1% for Canada.

Visitor arrivals by month showed that April recorded the highest number of visitors in the second quarter of 2025, with 2,312 visitors. This was followed by June with 2,228 visitors, and May was the least with 2,141 visitors.

The second quarter of 2025 recorded 2,337 tourists, out of which 2,146 tourists reported having a holiday and vacation as their purpose of travel. Tourists spent an average of 11 days in the country. Australia made up the highest proportion of tourists (32.4%) during the quarter.

The most common reason for visitors visiting the Solomon Islands during the quarter was for Holiday and Vacation (32.1%). This was followed by Business and Conference (27.3%), Other Reasons (24.5%), Visiting Friends or Relatives (13.2%), and Transit and Stopover (2.9%).

The distribution of visitor arrivals by broad age groups for the second quarter of 2025 showed that 76.1% of visitors were in the 25 years to 64-year-old age range. The youngest age group, 0-24 years, comprised 7.1%, and the oldest age group, 65 years and over, represented 11.1% of total visitor arrivals. The remaining 5.8% were visitors who did not state their age. In addition, male visitors represented more than half of the total visitor arrivals (69.7%), with female visitors making up 30.3% of all arrivals during the quarter.

Visitors by Occupation showed that the “Professional and Technical” category comprised the largest percentage of occupations (32.2%) during the quarter. This was followed by Administration and Managerial (18.2%), Production and Related Work (13.9%), Not Working (12.3%), Other Occupation (5.3%), Student (5.0%), Sales Worker (4.8%), Service Worker (2.7%), Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (2.2%), and Clerical and related work (1.4%).

The remaining 1.9% of visitors did not state their occupation. Males outnumbered females in all arrivals of visitors by occupations from professional to clerical and related work.

The most popular carriers during the quarter were Air Niugini, which carried 31.1% of total visitors, followed by Qantas (29.9%), Solomon Airlines (28.6%), Fiji Airways (6.7%), and Unscheduled Flights (3.7%).

Brisbane-Munda flights commenced its weekly schedule in February 2024. However, reporting of the 2nd Quarter 2025 Brisbane-Munda Visitors Statistics will be updated in the release of the third quarter of 2025. This is due to the delay in arrival cards from Munda immigration.

Source: Solomon Islands National Statistics Office