The Solomon Islands will welcome eight separate cruise visits in 2016, twice the number it saw last year.
Vessels that will visit Honiara and cruise within the 992-island archipelago this year include Princess Cruises Lines’ Sea Princess and Dawn Princess, Noble Caledonia’s Caledonia Sky, Silverseas Cruises’ Silver Discoverer, P&O’s Pacific Eden and Seabourn Cruise Lines’ Seabourn Odyssey.
Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau (SIVB) chief executive Josefa ‘Jo’ Tuamoto said the increase is the result of combined efforts to turn “huge potential into an actual reality.” He added that a recent visit to Sydney by a tourism delegation from the islands had also played an important role.
“Tourism is fast emerging as a major driver for the country’s GDP, the government had embarked on a very vigorous process to seize on the opportunity tourism presents and we see cruise as offering huge potential,” he said.
“We were determined to turn this potential into a hard reality and that is exactly what we are seeing in 2016.”
Image credit: iStock
