Solomon Islands International Arrivals Soar By 5.4 Per Cent In The 3rd Quarter Of 2017

Solomon Islands has hit the record high with a total of 13,639 international arrivals comprising of returning residents, intending residents and visitors into the country in the third quarter of this year (2017).
This was according to the latest quarterly bulletin on visitor statistics (arrivals) released by the Solomon Islands National Statistics Office (SINSO)on Friday 24 November 2017.
This quarterly bulletin is produced by the National Statistics Office (NSO) in the Ministry of Finance & Treasury (MoFT) and it provides information on international arrivals comprised of the returning resident, intending resident, and visitor.
Releasing the latest figure, Government Statistician Douglas Kimi said the third quarter 2017 has recorded an increase of 5.4 per cent compared to the previous quarter (2nd Quarter 2017).
He said compared to the same quarter a year ago, an increase of 26.2 per cent was recorded. “Visitors composed 54 per cent.”
He added that of the total arrivals for the third quarter of 2017, 45 per cent of total arrivals were returning residents and the remaining 1 per cent were intending residents.
“Visitor arrivals for the third quarter increased by 13.3 per cent to 7,281, compared to the second quarter 2017 figure of 6,425. An increase of 28.5 per cent was recorded over the same quarter in 2016,” Mr Kimi said.
Mr Kimi said arrivals by country of residence for the third quarter of the year showed that Australians (38.0 per cent) remain the largest group of visitors to the Solomon Islands, followed by visitors from Other Asia (10.7 per cent), US (7.8 per cent), New Zealand (7.2 per cent), Fiji (6.2 per cent), PNG and China (5 per cent).

On visitors by monthly arrivals for the third quarter of 2017, Mr Kimi said that August has the highest number of arrivals with 2,589 persons. “This was followed by the month of September with a recorded total of 2,397 persons and July the least with 2,295 persons.”
On tourist, the Government Statistician (GS) said 2,757 tourists arrived in the third quarter of 2017 and they spent an average of 11 days in the country.
“The highest proportion of tourists recorded for the quarter came from Australia (41.8 per cent) and they stayed in the country for an average of 11 days. This was followed by tourists from the United States of America (12.2 per cent), other Asia (7.4 per cent), China (5.5 per cent), New Zealand (4.8 per cent) and Other Europe (4.6 per cent).
“The distribution of visitors by their purpose of visit revealed that having holiday and vacation (35.6 per cent) was the most common reason for visiting the Solomon Islands during the quarter. This was followed by business & conference (28.2 per cent), other (17.8 per cent), visiting friends & relatives (16.2 per cent) and transit & Stopover (2.2 per cent).
“Visitor arrivals by broad age groups showed that 71 per cent of arrivals were in the 25years to 64years age range. The youngest age group 0-14 years represented 4.2 per cent of the arrivals while the oldest age group, more than 65 years represented 9.4 per cent. The remaining 6.9 per cent were visitors who did not state their age. Males were 67.4 per cent of total visitor arrivals and females were 32.6 per cent,” Mr Kimi revealed.
On visitors by occupation, Mr Kimi said the group who stated their occupation as ‘other’ (41.6 per cent) was the largest group of visitors by occupational category during the quarter. This was followed by visitors from the professional and technical group (28.9 per cent), no work (12.1 per cent), administration & managerial positions (9.8 per cent), service workers (2.4 per cent) and production and related workers (2.1 per cent). Australians dominated most of the categories of occupations during the quarter.
“The most popular carriers during the quarter were Solomon Airlines who carried 46.8 per cent of visitors followed by Air Niugini (25.9 per cent) and Virgin Australia (15.3 per cent),” Mr Kimi said.
Meanwhile, the information/data from the disembarkation was captured through a self-completed visitor arrivals card that was completed by all passengers disembarking in the Solomon Islands.
The cards were collected by Immigration officials at the international check-in counters on arrival and were analysed in the quarterly report by the National Statistics Office (NSO) by country of residence, month of arrival, length of stay, purpose of visit age and carrier. The coverage of the bulletin is complete.
The National Statistics Office acknowledged the Immigration Department for their continuous support to this bulletin, by providing an office space and permitting the NSO to use completed cards to produce statistics. This bulletin is only possible because of the official arrangements in-place between the NSO and the Immigration department.
The fourth quarter 2017 of this bulletin will be released in January 2018.
 
(Source: SINSO Media published in Solomon FRESH-BEAT  ONLINE 04 December 2017)