24 Jul 2018

Strong visitor growth continues in the Pacific region

3:53 pm on 24 July 2018

The South Pacific Tourism Organisation says tourist arrivals to the region have grown strongly.

Fiji continues to be the top destination in the region.

An island in the Yasawa Group, one of Fiji's tourist playgrounds

An island in the Yasawa Group, one of Fiji's tourist playgrounds Photo: RNZI/Sally Round

Arrivals to the organisation's member countries provisionally reached over 460,000 in the March quarter of 2018.

The latest quarterly review reports visitors to the Asia and Pacific region were up 8.2 percent from 7.3 percent in the December quarter.

The latest figures outperformed last March's quarter by about 6 percent.

CEO Chris Cocker said Fiji continues to be the top destination with 36.7 percent of visitors followed by French Polynesia at 9.7 percent, Palau on 7.3 and PNG 7.2.

Samoa, the Cook Islands, Timor Leste, New Caledonia and Vanuatu rounded out the top nine destinations in the Asia Pacific.

Most tourists came from Australia which had a market share of nearly 27 percent, followed by New Zealand at 16 percent and the USA at just over 11 percent.

Tahiti/ Pacific cruise ship

Photo: RNZ Pacific / Linden Clark

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