Samoa’s total tourism earnings for the first seven months of the Financial Year 2022/2023 amounted to $194.2 million.
This was highlighted in a recent report on Visitor Earnings and Remittances for January 2023 issued by the Central Bank of Samoa.
The monthly report is the latest available indicators on the tourism sector and private remittances, with information sourced from the Central Bank, Samoa Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Customs and Revenue.
The report revealed that out of the total tourism earnings, New Zealand was the main source country with 46.7 per cent, followed by Australia at 29.5 per cent, USA (at 7.6 per cent) and ‘Other Countries’ (at 10 per cent).
“American Samoa and Europe recorded shares of 6 per cent and 0.6 per cent respectively,” reads the report.
In terms of the percentage for the purpose of visit, ‘Visiting Friends and Relatives ‘VFR’, ‘Holiday’, ‘Others’, ‘Business and Conference’ and ‘Sports’ recorded shares of 53.7 per cent, 27.1 per cent, 12.5 per cent, 6.5 per cent and 0.3 per cent in that order.
Furthermore, the report revealed that following the peak period during the festive season in the previous month, total visitor arrivals fell by a seasonal 26.6 per cent (or 4,458 visitors) to a total of 12,321 visitors.
“The decrease in visitor arrivals over December 2022 was mainly due to contractions in visitors from Australia (down by 2,572 visitors), New Zealand (down by 939 visitors), American Samoa (down by 585 visitors) and USA (down by 485 visitors).
“By purpose, reductions were noted for ‘Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) (down by 2,817 visitors) and ‘Holiday’ (down by 1,976 visitors).
“As a result, total visitor receipts narrowed by 33 per cent (or $18.2 million) to $36.9 million when compared to the previous month.”
The factors largely responsible for this decrease were: drop in visitor earnings from Australia (down by $10.6 million), New Zealand (down by $2.6 million), USA (down by $2.1 million), American Samoa (down by $2 million) and ‘Other Countries’ (down by $0.8 million).
“By purpose, proceeds from VFR, Holiday and ‘Others’ all fell by $10.3 million, $5.3 million and $3 million.”
Photo credit: Adel Fruean Caption: Afu Aau Waterfall one of the tourism attractions in Savaii, Samoa.