About

Summary

As part of a wider study developing the system of tourism statistics in 15 countries in the South Pacific (Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu), Acorn was contracted by the South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO) to develop an online tourism statistics database to provide a pan-Pacific system of tourism data that would benefit all these countries, and assist the SPTO to track tourism in the region.  To undertake this, we developed an online database using our T-Stats software.

Our Approach

The SPTO T-Stats system, named the Regional Tourism Resource Centre (RTRC) - https://spto.org/resources/rtrc is regularly updated with tourist arrivals from all 15 countries, and includes air tourist arrivals by country of residence and purpose of visit, cruise arrivals by country of residence, summary data from air and cruise visitor surveys, including expenditure, and a library of over 1,000 documents that can be searched using a user friendly enquiry tool.

Outcome

RTRC has become central to SPTO’s tracking of the tourism sector across all member states, and is one of the key benefits for SPTO members.  It provides a rich source of data that is continually updated, and enables strategic decisions to be made regarding the development of tourism across the region.