Visitors to the South Pacific continued to grow in 2006, despite a number of challenges the region faced.

Provisional figures indicate that approximately 1.28 million people visited the region in 2006, up 3% on 2005. This confirms tourism is on track to be a significant contributor to pillar 1 of the Pacific Plan, economic growth.

South-pacific.travel Chief Executive Tony Everitt said, "this modest growth demonstrates that overall our region's reputation in key markets is robust. However, we cannot afford to be complacent. Some South Pacific destinations are having to work extra hard to attract visitors in 2007. We believe our industry has the potential to be contributing two billion US dollars per annum to the region's economy by 2010. But this will require a lot of hard work, commitment, and investment in product development and marketing by both the private and public sector."

A provisional breakdown of visitor arrivals is

(nb. At release date 2006 arrival figures for Niue and Nauru were not yet available). South-Pacific Travel, 15/3/07.