Ib.com's Tourism pages bring you the the latest happenings in the Pacific Islands tourism industry. Islands Business International publishes the South Pacific Tourism Organisation's quarterly magazine and these online pages bring you some of the articles published in recent issues of the magazine as well as travel and tourism stories from other Islands Business group publications and regional news resources. Companies in the tourism sector are invited to send in their media releases that are relevant to the South Pacific tourism industry.
Tourism accounts for more than 50% of GDP in some Pacific countries and often accounts for between 10 and 20 % of formal employment. As the industry grows it benefits nearly every other part of an island country's economy. Economic value of tourism for region has grown by more than 60% since 2000.
After four years of negligible contribution to the Solomon
Islands' economy, the tourism industry is hoping to profit from the country's successful return to peace. During the first half of the year, the visitors bureau initiated a Visit Solomon promotion in Brisbane, Australia.
While Fiji is known to put a lot of emphasis on big dollar tourism where hotel project bills run into the millions and ratings like four and half or five stars have nice rings to them, the backpacker market and how it functions has not gone unnoticed.
