Steady growth in South Pacific Tourism [1]
Tuesday, April 8, 2008 - 12:04. Updated on Friday, July 24, 2015 - 16:56.
Visitors to the South Pacific continued to grow in 2007. Visitor arrival statistics indicate that 1,334,685 people visited the region in 2007, an increase of 4.1 percent.
south-pacific.travel Chief Executive Tony Everitt said "Given the increased cost of oil, this level of growth is a pleasing result. It shows that Tourism continues to lead economic development in the South Pacific."
Growth in visitors to the South Pacific Islands was double that to Australia and New Zealand in 2007, which both recorded a 2% increase in visitors. Globally visitor arrivals grew by 6.2%, but this was dragged up significantly by Asian destinations (eg China grew 10%) which have fast growing economies (World Tourism Organisation).
Visitor Arrivals into south-pacific.travel Member Countries, 2007
2007 2006 Change % change
Cook Islands 97,019 92,082 4,937 5.4
Fiji 539,255 545,168 -5,913 -1.1
French Polynesia 218,241 221,549 -3,308 -1.5
Kiribati 4,709 4,406 303 6.9
New Caledonia 103,363 102,198 1,165 1.1
Niue 3,463 3,008 455 15.1
Papua New Guinea 104,122 77,731 26,391 34.0
Samoa 122,250 115,882 6,368 5.5
Solomon Islands 13,748 11,482 2,266 19.7
Tonga 46,040 39,451 6,589 16.7
Tuvalu 1,130 1,131 -1 -0.1
Vanuatu 81,345 68,179 13,166 19.3
Total 1,334,685 1,282,267 52,418 4.1
Strong visitor growth was recorded in Papua New Guinea (+34%), Solomon Islands (+19.7%), Vanuatu (+19.3%), Tonga (+16.7%), Niue (+15.1%), Kiribati (+6.9%), Samoa (+5.5%), and the Cook Islands (+5.4%). Factors driving growth include increased air services and destination marketing.
Visitors from Australia to the South Pacific Islands increased by 6.9 percent in 2007, to 374,286. Visitors from New Zealand recorded growth of 7.8 percent, to 270,371. This continues a trend this decade of strong growth from our southern markets. There was a decline in visitors travelling from northern markets of Europe (-0.4%), Japan (-6.8%), and the USA (-7.4%), although visitors from Asia (+36.7%) and Canada (+14.1%) grew strongly.
south-pacific.travel Chief Executive Tony Everitt said "Contribution from our southern markets has grown from 39% of total visitors in 2002 to 49% in 2007. We think this is about a good level to maintain ... southern and northern markets each contributing half of our total visitors. For one thing, the South Pacific is an ideal winter escape for people living in temperate countries. We have two winters on our planet so it makes sense to draw on both. Also, we want to keep a balanced portfolio of markets so that we don...t become overly exposed to any local downturn."
Visitor Arrivals to south-pacific.travel Member Countries by Source Markets 2007
2007 2006 Change % change
Australia 374,286 350,180 24,106 6.9
New Zealand 270,371 250,741 19,630 7.8
Pacific Islands 101,884 94,623 7,261 7.7
USA 158,164 170,820 -12,656 -7.4
Canada 30,868 27,053 3,815 14.1
Europe 229,294 230,249 -955 -0.4
Japan 78,330 84,047 -5,717 -6.8
Other Asia 57,053 41,736 15,317 36.7
Other Countries 19,996 20,914 -918 -4.4
For further information contact hpoulivaati [at] south-pacific [dot] travel