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Solomon Islands 2016 Visitors Survey provides “compelling” insights

Participants with their awards

SOLOMON Islands tourism sector is well on track to becoming an economic pillar for the country.

Solomon Islands international visitor expenditure reached an estimated SBD233-million in 2016 and annual visitation continues to increase year on year.

The positive news emanates from an intensive study commissioned by the Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau and delivered by Sydney-based Stollznow Research to Solomon Islands government and industry representatives in Honiara.

Key findings show that Australian visitation continues to dominate Solomon Islands tourism, accounting for more than half of all visitors (53 percent) with leisure traffic accounting for 30 percent of the country’s overall annual total.

The main reasons cited for visiting Solomon Islands remain ‘rest and relaxation’ (38 percent) followed by scuba diving which accounts for 28 percent of all leisure-based arrivals.

The survey also found that while water-based activities including swimming and snorkeling are high on visitors’ wish lists, sightseeing, culture, history and in particular WWII, shopping, hiking, fishing, sailing and kayaking remain among the top 10 reasons for visiting.

However, one of our country’s biggest drawcards remains the friendliness of our people, a factor Mr Stollznow described as “compelling”.

Furthermore, 62 percent of visitors say that they would definitely recommend a Solomon Islands holiday to others and 79 percent say they would return to the destination for further visit within the next five years.

Describing the survey findings as very positive and evidence that Solomon Islands tourism industry is staying on track to becoming a major economic pillar in short time, SIVB CEO, Josefa Jo Tuamoto said there are still some areas that seen as in part constraining the destination’s overall tourism sector growth and that is accommodation infrastructure and sales agents awareness.

There is a need to address a current accommodation shortfall in Solomon Islands particularly in Honiara where would be well served by an increase in three to four-star accommodation, Mr Tuamoto said.

Mr Tuamoto added that Hopefully the Solomon Islands successful bid to stage the 2023 Pacific Games will have a major flow-on impact, both from the perspective of increased investment in infrastructure and particularly, hotel accommodation and a dedicated convention facility.

Moreover the Stollznow Research tells us that while we are making inroads with wholesalers and travel agents in our various visitor source markets we still need to do more to get ourselves on the radar.

Mr Tuamoto also said that “this is something we have to address and with government and local industry support they should be working hard to make sure we become top of mind with travel agents, both in our existing visitor source markets and new areas of potential business”.