TOURISM Solomons is celebrating its best first quarter international visitor intake since 2019.

Figures released by the Solomon Islands National Statistics Office (SINSO) for Q1 show the destination attracted a total of 4903 visitors, an increase of 24 percent over the 3940 achieved for the same period in 2023.

Australian arrivals continued to dominate the statistics, climbing 4 per cent from 1426 to reach 1484.

New Zealand numbers too increased, up 39 percent from 236 to 329 while numbers from Fiji rose 11 percent from 399 to 458.

The strongest result came from Papua New Guinea where visitor numbers increased from 261 to 478 for the quarter, an increase of more than 84 percent.

The only dip across all visitor sources came from the US where visitor arrivals dropped -5 percent   from 351 to 330.

While the 2024 Q1 numbers fall short of the 6042 achieved in Q1 of the record-breaking 2019, Tourism Solomons CEO (acting) Dagnal Dereveke said concerted marketing efforts in tandem with partner Solomon Airlines were obviously paying dividends.

“Our 2024 marketing strategy continues to be fixed on rebuilding and growing the numbers in our key source markets,” Mr Dereveke said.