Tahiti and its islands managed to record a growth in 2011 reverting over five years of decline in arrivals.
PARIS/PAPEETE- To many European travellers, Tahiti still keeps a pristine image of a kind of paradise on earth, lost in the midst of the Pacific Ocean. Beautiful buxom Tahitian woman posing in lush tropical landscapes painted by French artist Paul Gauguin have been probably the best advertising ever done to the islands. Tourism is consequently a major resource in French Polynesia, contributing to 13% of total GDP. Tahiti and its surrounding islands however suffered over the last 15 years from a sharp decline in tourist arrivals. However reaching this lost Pacific paradise is a long way out and this has driven up transportation costs due to rocketing fuel prices. Prices in Tahiti –which are mostly aligned on prices in France and are even higher due to the cost of imports-, played also a negative impact on tourists’ demand. French Polynesia faced then difficulties to sustain competition from its neighbours such as Fiji. Between 1999 –the highest tourist record on date for Tahiti- and 2011, total arrivals to French Polynesia declined by almost 45%, from 235,901 to 162,776 arrivals. By comparison, Fiji received last year 674,868 international visitors, a growth of 64.6% over 1999 (409,955 arrivals).
Meanwhile, year 2011 did not turn into such a bad vintage. In contrary, Tahiti and its surrounding islands saw a growth of 5.8% in all arrivals (holidays and cruise passengers) reverting continuous decline since 2006. According to the ISPF (Institut de la Statistique de la Polynésie Française), the positive trend is essentially due to a sharp bounce back from US tourists, up by 20%. US travellers represent 35% of all arrivals and are Tahiti top market with almost 50,000 arrivals. France comes second with a market share of 22%, an erosion of 1.7 point over 2010.
Total arrivals from Europe (excluding France) declined by 18.5% from 2004 to 2011 while arrivals from Japanese tourists literally collapsed during the same period. From 2004 to 2011, recorded visitors from Japan was divided by two, from 23,630 to 12,990. Consequently, Asia represented in 2011 a market share of only 9.8% compared to 12% in 2004. Last year, Japanese arrivals were affected by March earthquake and tsunami. However, arrivals from Australia/New Zealand show a positive trend. Last year, they progressed by 13.6%, reaching a market share of 11.4%.
Cruise activity also stimulated tourism growth to the territory. French Polynesia received last year 24 cruise ships with over 26,000 passengers (up by 6.6%). However it is still half the total number of cruise passengers recorded in 2001. Hotels in Tahiti and its islands saw an increase in occupancy. While capacity remained constant (–0.6%), occupancy progressed by 1.4 point to reach an average occupancy of 53.7% with luxury hotels showing the highest average occupancy rate at 56.6%. Domestic guests represent only 16% of all overnights and stay mostly in hotels located in Bora-Bora. Increases in accommodation prices at hotels translated into an increase of 11% in Revpar. Last year, the cost of a holiday in Tahiti was up by 2 % on average, due to spiralling air fares.
The positive trend in arrivals seems to continue in 2012. During the first quarter, total arrivals were up by 0.4%, the equivalent of 34,838 international travellers.
Table: French Polynesia tourism evolution 2001-2011
(in blue are holiday travellers and in purple cruise passengers spending at least one night on the cruise vessel in Tahiti).
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
![[PR] PR_Ascott and Vimut Hospital_2024](https://www.traveldailynews.asia/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PR-PR_Ascott-and-Vimut-Hospital_2024-400x265.jpg)
