By Sasha Pei-Silovo – EM TV, Port Moresby
The tourism industry in the Solomon Islands continues to flourish with a 15.6 per cent increase in visitor arrivals.
The Melanesian state recorded the highest number of visitors coming from Australia; with the second highest from Fiji. New Zealand placed in third, while visitors from Papua New Guinea made up the fourth largest group of travellers to the Solomon Islands.
With the staging of the country’s annual Telekom National Tourism Forum in Honiara on September 25, it is expected that more than 200 leaders from business, private and public sectors will be at the forum to discuss strategies and policies to support, and strengthen, the tourism industry.
Themed ‘Managing Change and Creating a Million Tourism Opportunities’, the forum will further provide an avenue for the tabling of innovative approaches to enhance sustainable tourism in the Solomon Islands.
The rise in visitors is a morale booster for the Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau (SIVB) and is a reflection of the positive actions taken by the SIVB, in partnership with the Solomon Islands Government and sector-partners such as the airline industry, to improve mechanisms in place.
