Visitor Arrivals
CENTRAL BANK STATEMENT : In preparation for the protection and safeguarding of its people from the infectious and deadliest global pandemic – coronavirus (COVID-19), Samoa’s international borders have been closed indefinitely with the priority now given first to the repatriation of Samoan residents before any further consideration. This has resulted in the month of April 2020 registering for the first time in the history of international travelling that we have absolutely no visitors and subsequently no visitors’ earnings
The first ten months of 2019/20 is now the same as its first nine months for total visitor arrivals and earnings. The tourism price index dropped by 14.7 percent lower than in April 2019 as a result of the reduction in the ‘Accommodation’ sub-index.
Private Remittances
Total Private Remittances recorded a drop of 8.7 percent (or $3.5 million) to $36.7 million when compared to the same month last year and was 21.6 percent (or $10.1 million) lower than the previous month.
The reduction in private remittances was accounted for by the decreases in funds from ‘others’ (down
$5.0 million), New Zealand (down $1.6 million) and Australia (down by $1.4 million) whereas by
recipient, reductions were also recorded for ‘Hand carried cash’ (down by $3.9 million), and Non -profit
institutions serving households (NPISH), (down by $2.0 million) and ‘In Kind’ (down by $0.07 million).
However, total private remittances for the first ten months of 2019/20 grew by 0.9 percent (or $4.1 million) to $453.4 million over the same period of 2018/19. By country, increases were recorded for New Zealand (up $16.0 million) and American Samoa (up $4.1 million). The increase for American
Samoa is partially aided by the 3.1 percent depreciation of the Samoa Tala against the US dollar. In terms of recipients, total funds for ‘Family and Households’, ‘In Kind’ and ‘others’ all rose by $16.1 million, $3.0 million and $0.7 million respectively.
The share of remittance inflows received through Money Transfer Operators (MTO’s) recorded a slight improvement of 82.8 percent from 82.6 percent in April 2019 while those received directly through commercial banks fell to 17.2 percent from 17.4 percent in the same month last year.
The average monthly cost for sending NZD$200.00 to Samoa contracted to 11.12 percent from 12.50 percent while the average cost of sending AUD$200.00 fell to 6.19 percent from 7.81 percent.