I’m going to let you in on a little secret: the Solomon Islands. In 2023, the Solomons welcomed 26,000 visitors (that’s three zeros). And that includes non-leisure travellers. That leaves a small pot of actual tourists.
By comparison, Pacific neighbour Fiji saw nearly a million visitors over the same period (929,740 to be precise). So on average, it welcomes around the same number of tourists in 10 days that the Solomons welcomes in a year.
But is that a good thing? That depends. If you’re looking for more development, more luxury and the sort of energy that comes with mass tourism, you might prefer Fiji. If you’d rather… well, almost the opposite, the Solomon Islands might be your cup of kava.
In an interview with Karryon in Sydney, Tourism Solomons Head of Sales and Marketing Fiona Teama calls the Solomon Islands a “very niche destination” – with all that entails.
“We’re not for flop and drop travellers,” she says.
“Those that want to enjoy five-star, resort-style holidays… we’re happy that our other bigger Pacific Island countries have those offerings, but we are for those who want to appreciate more for less – more of the untapped, uncrowded, raw, epic, nature-based experiences – and we want to keep it that way.”
Teama also talks a lot about authenticity and one of the Pacific nation’s big points of difference: culture.
“That is our message from the Solomon Islands – that if you want a real authentic, living, cultural experience, we’ve got that,” she explains.
“Culture for us… is our DNA because that sort of distinguishes and helps us stand out from the rest. Anybody in the Pacific can talk about their cultures, but ours is living.”
“We’re not a destination where everyone goes to, but only for those who really want to appreciate what makes us special.”
Combine that culture with adventure, the Solomon Islands’ biggest draw card – whether that’s diving, fishing, surfing or other water-based experience – and you should have a winning formula.
Less is more
By keeping tourism “small” and well-managed, Teama says “we protect the natural beauty of the destination for generations to come”.
“And small with high value, so that it contributes to the economy as well… and jobs are being created,” she adds.
“We are going through a phase where the government is really pushing us for more development in terms of tourism, but on our sustainability side, we want to argue that yes, we can grow, but how can we grow at a managed rate? How much tourism do we want? We don’t want to get to the mass tourism level.”
That goes for cruising as well, which continues to rise.
“We want more visitors on the cruise liners to come, but a lot of preparation is involved, to prepare our destination for cruise visits,” Fiona says.
“The local women go out and do the weaving and kava, so there’s a whole lot of preparation. So if it comes too often we’ll go through fatigue and we don’t want to put pressure on our people.
It doesn’t want to put pressure on its eco-system either.
“On the environmental side, when cruise liners come there’s sewage leakage in our oceans as well. So we know what’s happening in the forefront… and we have to set environmental policies as well to protect our reefs and marine resources.”
Balancing act
That’s not to say the island nation doesn’t want its tourism industry to grow.
“We want visitors to come and enjoy our experiences in our country. But we want it to be managed as well and not overly exploited,” Teama remarks.
Key to any sort of growth is Australia, which prior to the pandemic accounted for 40 per cent of visitation to the country.
According to Teama, the Solomons welcomed “close to 30,000, just over 29,000” visitors before COVID. Last year, it received about 26,000 visitors – an average of 500 people a week. A small number by most standards, but one it still celebrated.
In addition, the first quarter of 2024 shows tourism is on the right track, “growing this year compared to last year”.
That is despite its price point, which Teama says is one of the challenges of marketing the country for tourism.
“Because in terms of pricing, we are a bit more expensive than Fiji – or we’re sitting on the same rate but less of what Fiji has to offer,” she says.
“This is in terms of the standard of accommodation and other services, like tours. But we try as much to maximise the experience once the visitor is in country… give them more for what they have spent.”
But some development could be in the pipeline for the island nation.
“Nothing much has changed in terms of hotel developments, but we’ve got a huge interest of investors… that have been approaching our ministry. It wants to come and develop. Again sustainably,” Teama tells Karryon.
“[There’s been some interest] in developing especially around Western Province, Central and Malaita. So hopefully we’ll get some more standard accommodations to be able to be in that same playing ground as other destinations.”
So not a lot has changed for the Solomon Islands. But you get the feeling that’s the way it – and its visitors – like it.
