TOURISM Industry in the country has been labelled as the worst tourism website in the region.

A study report shows that a review of 63 accommodations in the Honiara, Guadalcanal and Central regions show there is a lot of work to do with digital tourism in the country.

According to the report 82 percent of tourism operators in the Solomon Islands had no website and of those that do, 50 percent are not mobile friendly and 83 percent have no booking engine.

Nationally the figures are much worse where common and affects the rest of the tourism operator in the country.

In a workshop held recently in Honiara on Digital Tourism, a staff from the Pacific Island Trade & Tourism, Mr Len Cordiner said a big concern with Solomon Islands is people or travellers can’t find most tourism products online.

He pointed out that this is because tourism operators in Solomon Islands are not really profiting taking their products online.

Mr Cordiner said there are only two operators in Solomon Islands engaged in active online marketing of their products.

“This is actually the purpose the workshop was held to show you how to get more bookings with higher occupancy to grow sales and profitability using online marketing,

“Also to show you how to increase profitability with more direct bookings and extra non-room income per booking,” he said.

Mr Cordiner stated this is big problem here and it needs responsible tourism authority to work on.

“Like, for now you can’t book accommodation on online since you can’t find them online as well.

“I think it’s a big job to do here in Solomon Islands is to get all the tourism products online, because that’s the way it happening in the rest of the world.

“People usually find accommodation online when going on the operator’s website, where they can find photos, information and other activities before making their bookings.

“And generally the number of visitors booking for Solomon Islands is not going up and it seems to remain the same since 2015,” he said.

Mr Cordiner advises that the responsible government body and SIVB must work hard by taking fresh approach toward tourism if they really want to improve in Solomon Islands.

He pointed out that the way forward is to keep more tourism operators online and more products online as well.