Travel to the Solomon Islands is on track for a record year, with visitor numbers growing at a double-digit rate over the country’s busiest-ever year in 2019.
In an interview with Karryon during a recent visit to Australia, Tourism Solomons Acting CEO Dagnal Dereveke said that during the first four months of 2025, the Solomon Islands saw an 11% increase over the same period in 2019 – and that’s led by its biggest market Australia, which accounts for one in every three visitors (34%) to the Pacific nation.
The results will be a welcome relief for a nation that has yet to recover its pre-pandemic numbers over the course of a full year.
“We hope that by the end of 2025 [we’ll get there],” he said.
Even if it does smash its previous record, we’re still talking about a country that welcomes fewer visitors in 12 months than Fiji sees in a fortnight (in its record year, the Solomons saw 28,900 international arrivals). But at a time when the challenges of mass tourism are making headlines, the Solomon Islands could be the perfect antidote.
Resorts rising
While the addition of a couple of hundred rooms wouldn’t be considered major news for most destinations, it’s a big deal for the Solomon Islands.
According to Dereveke, the country’s leading property, the Heritage Park Hotel in capital Honiara, is adding 100 rooms to its inventory, thanks to the relocation of its fitness centre and nightclub. This is expected to be completed in 2026.
The King Solomon Hotel is also looking to add around 100 rooms over the next few years, Dereveke says. The hotel was recently acquired by the former Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Peter O’Neill’s company, The Remington Group, so tourism authorities expect a lot of new investment in the property.
Elsewhere, in the outer provinces, a number of smaller operations are also “coming online”.
Meanwhile, the island nation is gearing up to welcome some major events, including the 2025 Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in September. The Australian A-League’s Brisbane Roar will also be playing a match in the football-mad country.
But sometimes there’s more strength in numbers. With this in mind, the country’s tourism office says it’s been working hard to boost ties with other Pacific nations.
Speaking recently in Sydney, Tourism Solomons Head of Sales and Marketing Fiona Teama said this is especially true of the airline landscape, which has seen small capacity increases to the Solomons on the back of route collaborations with Fiji and Vanuatu in particular.
“We’ve got a very well-connected [route], Brisbane direct now into Munda, our second international airport,” she said.
“So those are key development areas that are critical for the industry moving forward.”
A testament to the work the country is putting into the visitor economy, Tourism Solomons was also recently nominated for the Most Popular Tourism Board prize at the 2025 National Travel Industry Awards (NTIA). So expect to hear more from the Solomon Islands.
