Total arrivals of persons for the first quarter of 2024 was 10,159, a decrease of 45.1% compared to the 4th quarter of 2023.
Quoting the report, Acting Government Statistician Samson Kanamoli said compared to the same quarter a year ago, total arrivals significantly increased to 22.1%.
He said returning residents made up 51.0% of all arrivals for the first quarter of 2024. This was followed by visitors recording 48.3% of all arrivals, and the remaining less than 1.0% were intending residents.
“Visitor arrivals for the first quarter decreased by 57.0% to 4,903 visitors, compared to the fourth quarter 2023 figure of 11,415 visitors.
“From the first quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024, visitor arrivals increased by 25.7% in visitor arrivals.”
Arrivals by country of residence for the first quarter of 2024 showed that visitors from Australia comprised of the largest (30.5%) group of visitors to the Solomon Islands. This was a decrease of 51.4% in arrivals representing 1,494 Australian visitors at the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2023 figure of 3,074.
The next largest group of visitors were from Fiji (10.2%) followed by Papua New Guinea (9.5%), Other Asian Countries (9.0%), New Zealand (7.2%), China (7.0%), United State of America (6.7%), Vanuatu (5.8%), Other Pacific Countries (4.7%), Other Europe Countries (3.1%), Japan (2.0%), United Kingdom (1.5%) and Other Countries (1.4%).
Visitor arrivals by month showed that March recorded the highest number of arrivals in the first quarter of 2024 with 2,042 visitors. This was followed by February with a total of 1,543 visitors and January the least with 1,318 visitors.
The first quarter of 2024 recorded a total of 1,463 tourists, out of which 1,181 tourists reported having a holiday and vacation as their purpose of travel. Tourists spent an average of 13 days in the country. Australia made up the highest proportion of tourists (31.8%) during the quarter.
The most common reason for visitors visiting the Solomon Islands during the quarter was for Other Reasons (32.4%), this was followed by Business and Conference (24.8%), Holiday and Vacation (24.1%), Visit Friends or Relatives (13.0%), and 5.8% for Transit and Stopover.
The distribution of visitor arrivals by broad age groups for the first quarter of 2024 showed that 75.0% of visitors were in the 25 years to 64-year-old age range.
The youngest age group, 0-24 years, comprised of 17.1% and the oldest age group, 65 years and over, represented 7.8% of total visitor arrivals. In addition, male visitors represented more than half of the total visitor arrivals (66.8%), with female visitors making up 33.2% of all arrivals during the quarter.
Visitors by Occupation showed that the “Professional and Technical” category made up the largest percentage of occupations (41.2%) during the quarter.
This was followed by Administration and Managerial (16.3%), Not Working (11.8%), Student (7.7%), Other Occupation (6.0%), Service Worker (5.3%), Production and Related Work (5.1%), Sales Worker (3.2%), Clerical and related work (1.9%), and Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (1.6%). The remaining 0.1% of visitors did not state their occupation.
The most popular carriers during the quarter were Solomon Airlines which carried (39.4%) of total visitors, followed by Air Niugini (28.9%), Qantas (20.6%), Fiji Airways (9.9%) and Unscheduled Flights (1.3%).
Brisbane-Munda flights commenced its weekly schedule on month of February 2024.
Due to delays of arrival cards from Munda Immigration Office, reporting of 1st quarter 2024 Brisbane-Munda Visitors statistics will be updated in the second quarter of 2024 release.
Source: Press Release, SINSO Press