Tourism Numbers Plummeted in First Quarter Of 2024

TOTAL arrivals of persons for the first quarter of 2024 was 10,159, a decrease of 45.1% compared to the previous quarter (4th quarter 2023).

The Solomon Islands National Statistics Office released the latest Statistical bulletin for International Arrivals on Saturday 22nd June 2024.

Quoting the report, Acting Government Statistician Samson Kanamoli said compared to the same quarter a year ago, total arrivals significantly increased to 22.1%.

He said returning residents made up 51.0% of all arrivals for the first quarter of 2024. This was followed by visitors recording 48.3% of all arrivals, and the remaining less than 1.0% were intending residents.

“Visitor arrivals for the first quarter decreased by 57.0% to 4,903 visitors, compared to the fourth quarter 2023 figure of 11,415 visitors.

“From the first quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024, visitor arrivals increased by 25.7% in visitor arrivals.”

Arrivals by country of residence for the first quarter of 2024 showed that visitors from Australia comprised of the largest (30.5%) group of visitors to the Solomon Islands. This was a decrease of 51.4% in arrivals representing 1,494 Australian visitors at the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2023 figure of 3,074.

The next largest group of visitors were from Fiji (10.2%) followed by Papua New Guinea (9.5%), Other Asian Countries (9.0%), New Zealand (7.2%), China (7.0%), United State of America (6.7%), Vanuatu (5.8%), Other Pacific Countries (4.7%), Other Europe Countries (3.1%), Japan (2.0%), United Kingdom (1.5%) and Other Countries (1.4%).

Visitor arrivals by month showed that March recorded the highest number of arrivals in the first quarter of 2024 with 2,042 visitors. This was followed by February with a total of 1,543 visitors and January the least with 1,318 visitors.

The first quarter of 2024 recorded a total of 1,463 tourists, out of which 1,181 tourists reported having a holiday and vacation as their purpose of travel. Tourists spent an average of 13 days in the country.

Australia made up the highest proportion of tourists (31.8%) during the quarter.

The most common reason for visitors visiting the Solomon Islands during the quarter was for Other Reasons (32.4%), this was followed by Business and Conference (24.8%), Holiday and Vacation (24.1%), Visit Friends or Relatives (13.0%), and 5.8% for Transit and Stopover.

The distribution of visitor arrivals by broad age groups for the first quarter of 2024 showed that 75.0% of visitors were in the 25 years to 64-year-old age range.

The youngest age group, 0-24 years, comprised of 17.1% and the oldest age group, 65 years and over, represented 7.8% of total visitor arrivals. In addition, male visitors represented more than half of the total visitor arrivals (66.8%), with female visitors making up 33.2% of all arrivals during the quarter.

Visitors by Occupation showed that the “Professional and Technical” category made up the largest percentage of occupations (41.2%) during the quarter.

This was followed by Administration and Managerial (16.3%), Not Working (11.8%), Student (7.7%), Other Occupation (6.0%), Service Worker (5.3%), Production and Related Work (5.1%), Sales Worker (3.2%), Clerical and related work (1.9%), and Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (1.6%). The remaining 0.1% of visitors did not state their occupation.

The most popular carriers during the quarter were Solomon Airlines which carried (39.4%) of total visitors, followed by Air Niugini (28.9%), Qantas (20.6%), Fiji Airways (9.9%) and Unscheduled Flights (1.3%).

Brisbane-Munda flights commenced its weekly schedule on month of February 2024.

Due to delays of arrival cards from Munda Immigration Office, reporting of 1st quarter 2024 Brisbane-Munda Visitors statistics will be updated in the second quarter of 2024 release.

Source: SINSO Media Release