Solomon Islands Dialogue To Improve Visitors’ Arrivals Data Collection Held

A roundtable discussion to pave way forward for data collection and entry improvement in the country was held between the Solomon Islands National Statistics Office (SINSO), Central Bank of Solomon Islands (CBSI), Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau (SIVB), Customs and the Solomon Islands Immigration officials last week.
Held at the SIVB conference room at Point Cruz on Tuesday 31st October 2017, the meeting gave organization representatives the opportunity to discuss challenges faced with data collection, in particular, the international arrivals statistics, which is the key source for tourism arrivals data used in the design and monitoring of SIG’s policies such as the National Tourism Development Strategy, and key economic and monetary policies of the country.
The meeting also discussed logistical arrangements for data collection, and data entry issues, and possible ways forward for data enhancement, improvements and strengthening collaboration.
In the meeting all members agreed and vowed to work together and patch the missing links that continue to evolve within their cycle of work thus denying them from collecting updated and accurate data needed for the country policy makers and users.
Speaking on visitors’ arrival, Anterlyn Tuzakana Principal Statistician from NSO said producing good quality data is paramount.
However, she said to accomplish that, it needs collaborative effort of all Statistics producers and users.
Mrs Tuzakana said producing quality data can not only benefit its users but can also help policy makers frame good strategies for future planning.
Sandy Iro, CBSI Analyst while commending NSO for producing such needed statistics for the country said joint effort is significant to produce quality data.
She said CBSI relies on NSO statistical figures for its monetary value adding producing timely information/data is important for everyone (users).
Government Statistician, Douglas Kimi said teamwork is the only way forward in order to produce accurate data.
He said the discussion has created a platform where NSO and its users/partners can work on opportunities that can improve their work as statisticians.
Mr Kimi said collaborative work is needed to ensure data collected are complete and accurate.
Meanwhile, he added that one of the challenges face is administration recording which he said the NSO is working on to improve it.
SIVB Marketing Manager Freda Unusi said SIVB depend entirely on NSO produced data for planning purposes.
“NSO data is very important to us. Without data we are nothing, because only these data can help us to plan our future programme,” she said.
“NSO is the only trusted agency that we used its data/statistics figure and send it to the region and the world,” she added.
John Still Dorah Immigration Supervisor assured NSO for a close collaboration now and into the future to enable good and accurate data are produced.
He reiterated that only through partnership, quality data can be produced.
Isaac Mani of Immigration while sharing the same sentiments thanked NSO and other members for the initiative to ensure data entry/collection improvement in the country.
 
 
(Source: Solomon Islands National Statistics Office [SINSO] Media Release 07 November 2017)