In February this year, Tourism Solomons celebrated the Solomon Islands’ best visitor arrival figures in the post-COVID period, with numbers recorded for January to December 2025 jumping by more than 13 percent over 2024. The figures, released by the Solomon Islands National Statistics Office (SINSO), show a total of 28,548 international arrivals across the year, reflecting a 13.6 percent increase over the 25,130 figure recorded for the same period in 2024. The 2025 result sits just 382 under the record 28,930 arrivals recorded in 2019, shortly before the Solomon Islands Government enacted an 800-day border closure to prevent COVID-19 from entering the country.
While the numbers pale into insignificance when compared to the international visitor intake Fiji enjoyed in 2025—at 986,367, the highest annual total ever recorded—tourism represents a huge opportunity for the Hapi Isles. This was fully underlined earlier this year by outgoing Minister for Culture and Tourism, the Hon. Choylin Yim Douglas, when she reaffirmed the government’s “unwavering commitment” to advancing tourism as a key driver of national economic transformation.
Addressing the more than 100 delegates attending the ‘Strategic Transition’ themed Tourism in Focus 2026 conference in February, the Minister spelled out the government’s move to strengthen its national commitment in 2026 with an increased tourism budget of SBD 46.4 million (approx. FJD 1.27 million). Signaling a clear policy direction, this is the largest allocation ever provided to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and will play a major role supporting overseas destination marketing, product development, cultural heritage protection, and the expansion of accommodation and visitor infrastructure across the 992 islands that comprise the country’s nine provinces.
Having rebranded in 2018 with the high-profile and highly successful ‘Solomons Is.’ campaign, Tourism Solomons is poised to enter its next chapter with a clear understanding of what sets the destination apart and why the world is now ready to see it.
This strategy defines a national tourism identity built not on imitation, but on the truth of what the destination offers and, in particular, recognizing that its greatest strengths have never been manufactured for visitors. These strengths exist because they have always been part of daily life in this country’s unique and very varied cultural base.
For too long, the Solomon Islands has been placed in a generic Pacific frame that does not reflect its reality. So a new strategy is intended to move the destination out of this frame, positioning these Hapi Isles around what is raw and real – think adventure diving, shipwrecks that have become living reefs, surf breaks without crowds, eco-trekking, seas brimful of life that have escaped mass commercialization from foreign fishing fleets, a unique WWII history, languages from the ages still spoken across islands, conservation led by communities, and stories carried through land and sea rather than museums.
These are not curated experiences. They are the continuation of a way of life taking place in what has been described as the last true frontier of the South Pacific in a unique unspoiled eco-environment.
As the Solomon Islands prepares for its next phase of tourism growth, the opportunity ahead is both clear and compelling. The nation is approaching pre-COVID arrival levels, supported by the strongest government commitment the sector has ever received and a renewed strategic direction that reflects who it really is.
What sets the Solomon Islands apart is not scale, nor resort-driven development, but the depth and authenticity of experiences found nowhere else in the Pacific. As global travelers seek meaning over convenience, the Solomon Islands stands ready to welcome those who value what is real. With unity, investment, and purpose, the sector is poised to grow on its own terms and in its own unmistakable identity.
