The South Pacific Tourism Organization (SPTO), Paris 21 and the TAK met with various Government offices and a private sector business from October 21st – 23rd to discuss statistics and data related issues and concerns on tourism as part of the project on “Pacific Tourism Statistics Assessment, a collaboration between SPTO, Paris 21 and member countries.
Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21) promotes the better use and management of statistics throughout the developing world.
The assessment will involve site visits in only six of the fifteen selected case study Pacific Island countries (PICs) from October to December. The countries to be visited are Fiji, Kiribati, New Caledonia, Cook Islands, Niue and Tonga. For the other PICs, desk research and interviews by Skype and phone calls will be conducted. Countries were selected based on a fair representation of the Pacific Islands sub-regions of Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia as well as the different market segments, source markets, depth of tourism statistics development and the number of arrivals.
Pacific Tourism Statistics Assessment PARIS21 - SPTO collaboration on the preparation of Pacific Tourism Statistics Strategy 2020 - 2024
Mr. Mark Lound, a Regional Consultant on Tourism Statistics engaged by Paris21 and Mr. Kotoyawa Tamani, SPTO Tourism Officer, met with the Immigration Office, National Statistics Office, National Economic Planning Office, Climate Finance Division, Coastal Fisheries Division, Tobaraoi, LINNIX, Education, Environment Conservation Division, Public Health Division and Customs.
The results of the assessment will inform the design of the regional tourism statistics strategy that would align with the development priorities on tourism in the region as articulated in the Strategic Plan 2020-2024 and will support the data needs of the strategy.
The overall objective of the project is to design a regional strategy for the strengthening of tourism statistics in the Pacific to align with the policy priorities on tourism in the region and support data needs of the SPTO’s 2020-2024 Strategic Plan. This assessment report on tourism statistics in the Pacific is expected to be completed in March 2020.
