Strong Q2 Performance Keeps Solomon Islands 2017 VA Target Bang On Track

International visitation to the Solomon Islands buoyed by a huge 61.9 per cent increase in Australian visitation jumped by 29 per cent in June.
Official figures released by the Solomon Islands National Statistics Office this week show a total of 2561 international visitors recorded for the month.
This represents a 29.1 per cent increase over the 1984 tally achieved for the corresponding month in 2016.
Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau (SIVB) CEO, Josefa ‘Jo’ Tuamoto said the Q2 result was a vast improvement over a sluggish Q1 performance which saw figures for the period dip by 3.1 per cent compared to Q1 2016.
Mr Tuamoto said he was confident of an even stronger result across Q3, the result, he said, guaranteed to be lifted by the huge influx of visitors – predominantly American, Australian, New Zealand and Japanese –  attending the 75^th anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal and related commemorative services across the archipelago.
The June 2017 total brings the number of visitors recorded for the six-month period to 11,306, a 5.5 per cent increase over the 10,716 recorded in 2016, in the process keeping the Solomon Islands tourism industry on track for yet another positive year.
Australian visitor arrivals continue to dominate – the 1443 tally recorded for June representing a 61.9 percent increase over the 891 recorded in June 2016 and accounting for 40.2 per cent of all visitation.
Increases were also achieved in several other key source markets including New Zealand and the US, 10.6 per cent and 29.5 per cent respectively, while visitation from Papua New Guinea jumped by a huge 128.5 per cent.
 
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(Source: Distributed on behalf of the Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau by Mike Parker-Brown 21 August 2017)
 
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