Tourism is recovering in the Solomon Islands following the COVID-19 pandemic, with this year's Pacific Games set to boost figures even further ©Tourism Solomons

The Solomon Islands National Statistics Office (SINSO) have released tourism statistics for October to December, 2022, which indicate that they can imitate their numbers to pre-COVID-19 levels in 2019 ahead of the 2023 Pacific Games, when they had 30,000 visitors to the country. 

A total of 4,207 international visitors have travelled through the Honiara International Airport during this period, a 69 per cent increase over July to September, 2022 last year, when there were only 2,481 visitors.

Dagnal Dereveke, the acting chief executive of SINSO, welcomed the green shoots of recovery. 

“We remain cautiously confident,” Dereveke, also the head of corporate services, said. 

"We know with continuing effort, good marketing and profile rebuild and reinstating international confidence in the Solomon Islands, we can get back to where we were before the pandemic in relatively short time."

Solomon Islands National Statistics Office acting chief executive Dagnal Dereveke has claimed the 2023 Pacific Games holds huge opportunity for the country's profile in Australia and New Zealand ©Travel Weekly
Solomon Islands National Statistics Office acting chief executive Dagnal Dereveke has claimed the 2023 Pacific Games holds huge opportunity for the country's profile in Australia and New Zealand ©Travel Weekly

Making up a high percentage of tourists were the Australians, with 1,775 total visitors, a 42 per cent increase on the previous period. 

Visitors from New Zealand and the United States also increased.

Numbers from New Zealand rose from 155 to 249, up by 60 per cent, and the US by 60.6 per cent from 277 to 360.

The Pacific Games, due to take place from November 19 until December 2, are expected to be a huge platform for the Solomon Islands, as Australia and New Zealand will be among the 24 countries participating, helping drive up tourism figures.

"With both countries televising many of the events on a daily basis across the games’ 14-day duration, this gives us the biggest opportunity for us to showcase what we have to offer international visitors to literally millions of Aussies and Kiwis," said. Dereveke.