Total arrivals for the third quarter of 2023 was 10,893, an increase of 5.2% compared to the previous quarter (2nd quarter 2023).
The National Statistics Office released the third quarter report on Thursday 21st December 2023.
Compared to the same quarter a year ago, total arrivals doubled with an increase of 103.3%, noting the post-Covid-19 resumption of international travel in early 2023.
The Government Statistician Douglas Kimi said visitors made up 51.6% of all arrivals for the third quarter 2023.
Mr Kimi said this was followed by returning residents with 47.8% of arrivals and the remaining less than 1.0% were intending residents.”
“Visitor arrivals for the third quarter increased by 11.3% to 5,626 visitors, compared to the second quarter 2023 figure of 5,055 visitors.
“From the third quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2023, an increase of 126.8% in visitor arrivals was recorded.”
Arrivals by country of residence for the third quarter 2023 showed that Australia (37.8%) was the largest group of visitors to the Solomon Islands. This was an increase of 2.9% arrivals representing 2,124 Australian visitors by end of the quarter compared to the second quarter of 2023 figure of 2,064.
The next largest group of visitors were from Papua New Guinea and Other Asia (8.8%) followed by Fiji (8.0%), United States of America (7.1%), China (6.8%), New Zealand (6.5%), Other Europe (3.9%), Other Pacific (3.2%), Vanuatu (2.6%), and Japan (2.2%).
Visitor arrivals by month showed that August recorded the highest number of arrivals in the third quarter of 2023 with 1,906 visitors. This was followed by July with a total of 1,897 visitors and September the least with 1,823 visitors.
Third quarter 2023 recorded a total of 1,866 tourists, out of which 1,662 tourists reported having a holiday and vacation as their purpose of travel.
Tourists spent an average of 12 days in the country. Australia made up the highest proportion of tourists (39.2%) during the quarter.
SINSO Press