Feb 05 2010, Nuku'alofa
The Kingdom of Tonga’s tourism industry faced a very tough year in 2009, with the tsunami in Niuatoputapu, the Princess Ashika accident and, of course, the global economic conditions. “These things, no doubt, effected air tourist arrivals”, commented Mr Sakapo Lolohea (CEO of the Ministry of Tourism). Despite the tough conditions, tourist arrivals reached the 50,000 mark for the first time ever. Additionally, the Kingdom of Tonga welcomed 2.52% more visitors in 2009 (though this growth is slow compared to the 7.3% increase in air tourist arrivals in 2008).
Six of the 12 months showed positive growths, with February and August showing the highest growth compared to the same month in 2008. The month of July showed the largest drop of 10.13%, along with December of 9.04% decrease. “July and December are traditionally tourism’s two busiest months of the year”, said Mr Lolohea.
The Kingdom of Tonga’s main market of New Zealand showed a slight drop of 1%, Australia showed a small growth of 1.46% and the US saw an increase of 14% from the previous year. The long haul markets from Europe showed positive growth with the United Kingdom leading with an increase of 44% and the Asian markets also showed positive growth with China showing the largest increase of 66%.
“Clearly the performance of the New Zealand and Australian markets are a disappointment and a concern, and herein lies the challenge to the Kingdom of Tonga’s tourism industry for 2010”, said Mr Lolohea. It will be a tough year again but the Ministry of Tourism is aiming to see a 10% growth in air tourist arrivals in 2010.
Despite the small growth in air tourist numbers, tourism receipts shows a significant decrease falling by 25.70% in 2009. This is the lowest reported foreign exchange earnings in the last five years. Ten of twelve months in 2009 showed an overall decrease, with March showing the largest decrease of 45.64%. Only the month of April and May showed positive growth with April being 15%. One of the conclusion that we can draw from these figures is that visitors were spending less in 2009.
Mr Lolohea said “Despite these challenges, the spending issues can be overcome. Many good projects have been planned for the tourism industry and are being executed by the industry, the Government and aid donors. These tourism projects need to be streamlined with a total focus on boosting the potential of the industry for the benefit of the country as a whole.”
Source: Tonga Visitors Bureau
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