Solomon Islands tourism sector is ready for reopening

As the Solomon Islands prepares to rejoin the world after more than two years of isolation, results of a recently-conducted Ministry of Culture & Tourism/Tourism Solomons survey show the country’s tourism sector is ready to welcome visitors as soon as the decision to reopen the border has been finalised.

According to the results of the ‘COVID Preparedness in the Tourism Sector’ report, the tourism sector is well ahead of other segments of the population in terms of COVID-readiness and more than 70%of the 100 business operators polled are positive to a border re-opening and tourists returning.

Exceptionally high vaccination rates in the tourism sector showed 87% of resort managers/owners are fully vaccinated and 65% of all staff are fully vaccinated.

The number of the country’s key tourism operators’ vaccination rates are even higher with 88% fully vaccinated according to the survey.

The survey also showed 98% of operators were willing to take part in the MCT’s ‘Tourism Minimum Standards Extra-Care’ training and implement COVID-safe protocols.

Other key findings:

• 44% of tourism operators have a COVID-safe plan in place
• 68% of operators have in-place methods for enforcing the “no vax, no mask, no entry” policy
• 70% of operators have access to RAT test kits

Compiled on March 11, 2022, the survey was carried out by staff from the Department of Tourism (MCT), Tourism Solomons (TS) and tourism officers from Honiara City Council (HCC) and consisted of 18 questions designed to assess the readiness and willingness of tourism operator to implement COVID-safe protocols.