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Australia has been recorded as the country that has many of its nationals visiting Munda, Western Province during the third quarter of 2019 says the Solomon Islands National Statistics Office (SINSO).
The government statistical agency in its third quarter report on visitor’s arrival revealed that arrivals by country of residence to Munda for the quarter showed that Australians recorded the largest group of visitors with 85.4 per cent followed by visitors from United States of America with 4.9 per cent.
Government Statistician, Douglas Kimi, while releasing the report confirmed that the total arrivals for the third quarter 2019 were 14,194.
“This is an increase of 3.3 per cent compared to the previous quarter (2nd quarter 2019) and a decrease of 4.2 per cent compared to the same quarter a year ago, “he said.
He said Visitors made up 54 per cent of arrivals for the quarter followed by Returning residents with 45 per cent of arrivals and the remaining 1 per cent were Intending residents.
“Visitor arrivals for the third quarter increase by 9.2 per cent to 7,716 visitors, compared to the second quarter 2019 figure of 7,063 visitors. “There was a decrease of 1.6 in visitor’s arrivals from third quarter 2018 to third quarter 2019.”
Meanwhile, he said Arrivals by country of residence for the quarter showed that Australians remain the largest group of visitors to the Solomon Islands scoring 40.3 per cent. There was an 8.9 per cent increase to 3,108 in Australian visitors compared to the second quarter of 2019 figure 2,854.
“The next largest group of visitors were from Other Asia with 11.2 per cent, followed by United States of America 6.9 per cent, New Zealand 6.6 per cent, Fiji 6.5 per cent, Papua New Guinea 6.1 per cent, and Other Pacific 4.5 per cent.”
Mr. Kimi added that Visitor arrivals by month showed that September recorded the highest number of arrivals in the third quarter of 2019 with 2,695 visitors. This was followed by month of July with a total of 2,537 visitors and August the least with 2,484 visitors.
On Tourist, he said the quarter recorded a total of 2,953 tourists and they spent an average of 13.5 days in the country. Australian residents still made up the highest proportion of tourists with 40.7 per cnet for the quarter and stayed in the country for an average of 12 days. Residents from the United States of America made up the next largest group of tourists with 10.8 per cnet, followed by Other Asia 8.2 per cent, Japan 5.7 per cent and New Zealand 4.9 per cent.
“The most common reason for visitors visiting the Solomon Islands during the quarter was for Holiday and Vacation with 35.0 per cent. This was followed by Business and Conference 25.4 per cent visiting for Other Reasons 22.4 per cent, Visiting friends and relatives 13.9 per cent and Transit & Stop over 3.3 per cent.
“The distribution of visitor arrivals by broad age groups for third quarter 2019 showed that 75.1 per cent of Visitors were in the 25 years to 64 years age range. The youngest age group, 0 -24 years, represented 13.0 per cent of the arrivals while the oldest age group, 65 years and over made up 9.8 per cent of total visitor arrivals. The remaining 2.1 per cent were visitors who did not state their age. Male visitors represented more than half of the total visitor’s arrivals 65.1 per cent and female visitors made up 34.9 per cent of arrivals this quarter.
“Visitor by Occupation showed that the “Other occupation” category made up the largest percentage of occupations with 40.7 per cent during the quarter. This was followed by “Professional and Technical” 31.3 per cent, No work 11.3 per cent, Administration and Managerial position 9.0 per cent, and Service Worker 2.5 per cent.
“The most popular carriers during the quarter were Solomon Airlines who carried 48.6 per cent of total visitors, followed by Air Niugini 24.8 per centr and Virgin Australia 15.5 per cent.”
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