More than Eleven Thousand Visitor Arrivals Recorded in First Quarter of 2025

The total international visitor arrivals for the first quarter of 2025 was 11,564.

This was a decrease of 26.4% compared to the previous quarter (4th quarter 2024). Compared to the same quarter a year ago, total arrivals significantly increased by 13.8%.

Returning residents comprised the largest entrance, comprising of 51.2% of all arrivals for the first quarter of 2025. Visitors recorded 48.5% of all arrivals, and the remaining less than 1.0% were intending residents.

Visitor arrivals for the first quarter decreased by 18.4% to 5,612 visitors, compared to the fourth quarter 2024 figure of 6,878 visitors. From the first quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of 2025, visitor arrivals increased by 14.5% in visitor arrivals.

Arrivals by country of residence for the first quarter of 2025 showed that visitors from Australia comprised the largest (28.0%) group of visitors to the Solomon Islands. This was a decrease of 22.5% in arrivals representing 1,570 Australian visitors in the first quarter of 2025, compared to the fourth quarter of 2024 figure of 2,026.

The next largest group of visitors was from China (12.5%), followed by Fiji (9.1%), Other Asian Countries (8.6%), Other Pacific Countries (8.1%), Papua New Guinea (7.9%), the United States of America (7.1%), New Zealand (5.9%), Vanuatu (4.0%), Other European Countries (3.7%), Japan (1.7%), United Kingdom (1.5%), Other Countries (1.1%), and less than 1% for Canada and Germany.

Visitor arrivals by month showed that March recorded the highest number of visitors in the first quarter of 2025, with 2,259 visitors. This was followed by February with 1,891 visitors and January the least with 1,462 visitors.

The first quarter of 2025 recorded 1,666 tourists, out of which 1,505 tourists reported having a holiday and vacation as their purpose of travel. Tourists spent an average of 12 days in the country. Australia made up the highest proportion of tourists (26.0%) during the quarter.

The most common reason for visitors visiting the Solomon Islands during the quarter was for Business and Conference (28.4%). This was followed by Other Reasons (27.9%), Holiday and Vacation (26.8%), Visit Friends or Relatives (14.0%), and 2.9% for Transit and Stopover.

The distribution of visitor arrivals by broad age groups for the first quarter of 2025 showed that 74.9% of visitors were in the 25 years to 64- year-old age range. The youngest age group, 0-24 years, comprised 7.7%, and the oldest age group, 65 years and over, represented 8.9% of total visitor arrivals. The remaining 8.5% were visitors who did not state their age. In addition, male visitors represented more than half of the total visitor arrivals (70.1%), with female visitors making up 29.9% of all arrivals during the quarter.

Visitors by Occupation showed that the “Professional and Technical” category comprised the largest percentage of occupations (34.7%) during the quarter. This was followed by Administration and Managerial (18.2%), Not Working (11.2%), Production and Related Work (9.9%),

Other Occupation (7.4%), Student (4.7%), Sales Worker (3.8%), Service Worker (3.2%), Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (2.9%), and Clerical and related work (2.4%). The remaining 1.6% 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 Solomon Airlines, which carried 32.9% of total visitors, followed by Air Niugini (31.1%), Qantas (25.3%), Fiji Airways (6.9%), Unscheduled Flights (2.3%), and Air Nauru (1.6%).

Brisbane-Munda flights commenced their weekly schedule in February 2024. There were 267 recorded arrivals by country of residence to Munda for the first quarter of 2025. Australians (82.8%) recorded the largest group of visitors, followed by New Zealand (6.7%), the United States (3.4%), the United Kingdom (2.6%), Other European countries (2.2%), and Other Countries (1.1%). Visitor arrivals less than 1% were from Fiji and Other Asian countries.