The total international arrivals for the fourth quarter of 2023 was 18,499, an increase of 69.8 percent to the previous quarter (3rd quarter 2023).
The Solomon Islands National Statistics Office released the latest Visitor Arrivals bulletin on Monday 4th March 2024.
The Deputy Government Statistician Samson Kanamoli said compared to the same quarter a year ago, total arrivals significantly increased to 87.3%, noting the post-COVID-19 resumption of international travel in early 2023 and the hosting of 2023 Pacific game in Honiara in the last quarter of 2023.
Mr Kanamoli said visitors made up 61.7% of all arrivals for the fourth quarter of 2023.
“This was followed by returning residents with 38.1% of arrivals and the remaining less than 1.0% were intending residents.
“Visitor arrivals for the fourth quarter doubled by 102.9% to 11,415 visitors, compared to the third quarter 2023 figure of 5,626 visitors.
“From the fourth quarter of 2022 to the fourth quarter of 2023, visitor arrivals more than doubled by 171.3% in visitor arrivals.”
Arrivals by country of residence for the fourth quarter of 2023 showed that visitors from Australia comprised of the largest (26.9%) group of visitors to the Solomon Islands.
This was an increase of 44.7% in arrivals representing 3,074 Australian visitors by the end of the quarter compared to the third quarter of 2023 figure of 2,124.
The next largest group of visitors were from Other Pacific Countries (22.8%) followed by Papua New Guinea (11.3%), Fiji (8.7%), New Zealand (7.5%), United States of America (4.9%), Vanuatu and China (4.2%), Other Asia (3.1%), Other Europe (2.8%), and United Kingdom (1.0%).
Visitor arrivals by month showed that November recorded the highest number of arrivals in the fourth quarter of 2023 with 7,457 visitors, arriving mainly to attend or participate in the Pacific Games held in Honiara.
This was followed by October with a total of 2,062 visitors and December the least with 1,896 visitors.
The fourth quarter of 2023 recorded a total of 2,222 tourists, out of which 1,902 tourists reported having a holiday and vacation as their purpose of travel. Tourists spent an average of 15 days in the country.
Australia made up the highest proportion of tourists (37.8%) during the quarter.
The most common reason for visitors visiting the Solomon Islands during the quarter was for Other Reasons (60.3%), where the majority of visitors stated their visit to Solomon Islands was because of sports – mainly associated with the Pacific Games.
This was followed by Holiday and Vacation (16.7%), Business and Conference (11.5%), Visit Friends or Relatives (8.7%), and 2.8% for Transit and Stopover.
