THE Numbers of international visitors into the country has steadily increased from January to December last year.
An officially released figure from the Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau (SIVB) last week, has confirmed.
It stated that, Solomon Islands records solid visitor arrival increase for 2015 Rounding out a positive year for the Solomon Islands tourism fortunes, officially released figures this week show international visitation for the period January – December 2015.
This is an increase from 20,061 in 2014 to 21,623 – a growth of 7.8 per cent.
The arrival of Australian visitor has again led the way, the 9509 total recorded for the 12 month period representing a 4.10 per cent increase over 2014 and accounting for 43.9 per cent of the 2015 total.
New Zealand has for the first time jumped into the number two spot, the 1451 figure recorded for 2015 marking a 3.2 per cent increase over the 1243 total recorded in 2014.
The US, Papua New Guinea and Fiji arrivals also showed positive growth, figures increasing by 24.2 per cent, 7.8 per cent and 10.8 per cent, respectively.
In a statement, the Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau CEO, Josefa ‘Jo’ Tuamoto again attributed the positive result to the efforts the national tourist office has gone to in all key source markets across 2015.
“This is particularly the case in Australia and New Zealand where we have been extremely hard at work creating a profile for the Solomon Islands, working hand in hand with our industry colleagues and Solomon Airlines to perpetuate awareness for the destination,” he said.
By RONALD TOITO’ONA
