The total Visitor arrival for April 2009 increased in 21.3%, compared to April 2008. Overall increase in visitor arrivals over the same period is shown for Australia (44.6%), Europe (35.5%) and New Caledonia (10.8%).
Decline was shown for North America (37.8%), Japan (36.3%), New Zealand (21.0%), Other Pacific Countries (16.7%), and Other Non Pacific Countries (23.3%). 80.4 % of visitor arrivals in April 2009 came for Easter holidays, 10.5% came for business purposes, 8.4% visited friends and families while 0.8% stopovers. Visitors are beginning to stay longer with an average length of 8.4 days, an increase of 0.4 days compared to the same period of the previous year, and only two years ago, average length of stay was 6 to 7 days, which proves this could be a result of recent tourism developments in the hotel, restaurant, tours and services sector which has invited a wider range of different niche markets to step onto Vanuatu’s shores and enjoy the genuine hospitality of its’ people and new tour products in the last year or two. In April, the average age for visitors was 37.5 years, a decrease of 2 years compared to the same period of the previous year. Cruise ship visitor arrivals increase by 199.7% over the same month in 2008 totalling up to 17,271 visitors. These stats confirm that Vanuatu is constantly a favourable and affordable holiday destination even during recent down turns of the Global Financial Crisis. Stats provided by the National Statistics Office.
