The total arrival of persons for the second quarter of 2024 was 12,521, an increase of 23.3% compared to the previous quarter (1st quarter 2024).
The Solomon Islands National Statistics Office, SINSO, released the latest International Arrivals bulletin on Tuesday 3rd December 2024.
Acting Government Statistician Samson Kanamoli said compared to the same quarter a year ago, total arrivals significantly increased to 20.9%.
He said visitors made up the largest number of arrivals with 51.5% for the second quarter of 2024. Returning residents recorded 47.8% of all arrivals, and the remaining less than 1.0% were intending residents.
“Visitor arrivals for the second quarter increased by 31.5% to 6,446 visitors, compared to the first quarter 2024 figure of 4,903 visitors.
“From the second quarter of 2023 to the second quarter of 2024, visitor arrivals increased by 27.5% in visitor arrivals.”
Arrivals by country of residence for the second quarter of 2024 showed that visitors from Australia comprised the largest (34.9%) group of visitors to the Solomon Islands. This was an increase of 50.6% in arrivals representing 2,250 Australian visitors in the second quarter compared to the first quarter of 2024 figure of 1,494.
The next largest group of visitors were from Papua New Guinea (10.9%), followed by United States of America (9.2%), Other Asian Countries (9.0%), Fiji (8.8%), China (7.0%), New Zealand (6.2%), Vanuatu (3.2%), Other Pacific Countries (3.0%), Other Europe Countries (2.7%), Japan (1.7%), United Kingdom and Other Countries (1.2%). Table 2 shows detailed information on Visitor Arrivals to the Solomon Islands by Country of Residence: 1st Quarter 2022 to 2nd Quarter 2024.
Visitor arrivals by month showed that June recorded the highest number of visitors in the second quarter of 2024 with 2,259 visitors. This was followed by April with 2,211 visitors and May the least with 1,976 visitors.
The most common reason for visitors visiting the Solomon Islands during the quarter was for Other Reasons (31.9%), followed by Holiday and Vacation (27.6%), Business and Conference (23.1%), Visit Friends or Relatives (11.1%), and 6.2% for Transit and Stopover.
The distribution of visitor arrivals by broad age groups for the second quarter of 2024 showed that 73.4% of visitors were in the 25 years to 64-year-old age range. The youngest age group, 0-24 years, comprised 8.2%, and the oldest age group, 65 years and over, represented 12.3% of total visitor arrivals. The remaining 6.0% were visitors who did not state their age. In addition, male visitors represented more than half of the total visitor arrivals (68.2%), with female visitors making up 31.8% of all arrivals during the quarter.
Visitors by Occupation showed that the “Professional and Technical” category comprised the largest percentage of occupations (31.9%) during the quarter. This was followed by Administration and Managerial (16.5%), Not Working (15.6%), Service Worker (11.7%), Other Occupation (6.2%), Production and Related Work (5.6%), Student (4.9%), Clerical and related work (3.0%), Sales Worker (2.9%), and Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (1.7%).
The remaining 0.2% of visitors did not state their occupation. Males outnumbered females in all arrivals of visitors by occupations from professional to agricultural forestry and fishery.
The most popular carriers during the quarter were Solomon Airlines which carried (37.3%) of total visitors, followed by Air Niugini (26.3%), Qantas (23.5%), Unscheduled Flights (7.7%), and Fiji Airways (5.2%).
The Brisbane-Munda flights commenced its weekly schedule in February 2024. In the second quarter, arrivals by country of residence to Munda showed that Australians recorded the largest (67.9%) group of visitors, followed by New Zealand (8.4%), United States (4.7%), Other Asia (4.7%), and Other Country (4.7%), and United Kingdom (3.7%), Other Europe (3.2%), and Japan (1.6%). Visitors less than 1% were from Other Pacific countries and China.
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SINSO
