Tourism Priority: Regain Confidence of International Travellers
BY ALEX DADAMU
WHILE tourism infrastructure remains intact and safe from the damages caused by the recent riots, major impact have been done on the destination’s tourism aspirations as it slowly heads towards a post-pandemic lockdown environment.
In the tourist board’s first statement since the disturbance, Tourism Solomons head of sales & marketing, Fiona Teama said it is a major priority in the Tourism industry that international travellers regain confidence in our country as a safe destination.
“Our priorities are two-fold – we need to regain confidence in our country as a safe destination for international travellers, and we also need to get ready in time for our hosting of the Pacific Games in 2023.
Ms Teama said people need to remember that while the city is a key part of the country’s overall infrastructure, for many international visitors it serves as a spring board to the Solomon Islands main tourism corridors in the outer islands which have not experienced any trouble whatsoever.
Prior to the unrest, the destination has for the last 18 months been hard at work preparing the tourism sector for the time when international visitors can return to the Solomons Islands.
”And while we now face an even longer road ahead, we know and we are confident we will achieve what we have set out to achieve and come back bigger and better than ever before,” Ms Teama said.
Based on the Ministry of Finance and Treasury preliminary assessment, the unlawful events fortnight ago that led to the mass looting of businesses and property destruction, would drastically impact the country’s economic performance in 2021.
A government statement said prior to the unrest, government had expected a positive real economic growth of one percent (1.0%) in 2021, as a result of government policies and programs to boost economic recovery, growth and continued service delivery throughout the year.
However, preliminary data have now showed that the economy would contract by 0.2% in 2021. The damage done was immense, and would take many years to rebuild and recover from.
Meanwhile, a latest report on international arrivals into the country for the third quarter of 2021, released by the National Statistics Office on Monday 6th December 2021, shows further decrease compared to the second quarter.
The report stated that third quarter of 2021 recorded zero tourists whose purpose of travel was for holiday and vacation.
It is understood that restrictions on international flights as part of the State of Public Emergency, SOPE, measure against Covid-19 pandemic had also adverse implications on visitors travelling predominantly for tourism purposes.
Featured Photo Credit: Solomon Airlines.
