Overseas holiday visitors organizing return flights home with Air New Zealand.
By Staff Writer
Arrival numbers for the busy travel months of November-December last year, 2022, showed a 10.3 % jump to a total of 20,685 visitors, compared to the same period for the previous year in 2021.
The arrival figures were compiled by the Immigration Division of the Ministry of the Prime Minister and the Bureau of Statistics.
The promising jump, however, in total arrivals of last year’s peak holiday travel period, made up for only 48 percent of the 42,707 total arrivals for 2019 before the COVID pandemic ban.
Travelers stopped coming to Samoa when the health ban was imposed in the latter part of 2020 to prevent against the global spread of the COVID pandemic virus.
The recorded stats for the four year period starting 2019 -2022 showed the worst drop in arrival numbers for the Nov-Dec. period in 2020.
A total of only 1,353 visitors or only 6 per cent of the 2022 total arrivals landed in Samoa.
The travel ban continued into most of 2021 until it was finally lifted towards the end of the year.
A noticeable 57% surge in total arrivals of 1,317 total visitors for the final month of 2021 in December was sparked by the lifting of international travel.
A packed crowd seen in front of The Air New Zealand travel office in a busy section of Apia, offered a quick glimpse of the arrivals in Samoa during the busy holiday season ending.
The majority were overseas relatives, organizing return flights home to New Zealand after spending the holidays with families in Samoa.