The overall goal of the Pacific Tourism Data Initiative is to increase evidence based tourism decision making in the Pacific with a view to strengthening sustainable economic development. The research provides an International Visitor Survey (IVS) for each destination as a core source of data. The IVS monitors visitor satisfaction, expenditure and perceptions of recent travel experiences. In many nations the research also provides a Business perspective on tourism performance through industry surveys. NZTRI has also assisted the Cook Islands and Niue to be the first PICs in the region to run national surveys of community awareness of, and attitudes towards, tourism.

These sources of data combined help us to build Tourism Decision Support Systems (DSS) for each of the PICs. The longest running program of work is in the Cook Islands where the IVS has been running continually for since 2012 and where regular business and community surveys are now also run. With the support of IFC/World Bank and the US Department of Interior this work spread to Vanuatu and the Federated States of Micronesia (Yap) in 2015. In 2017 New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade picked up the funding of the Vanuatu program and also introduced three new nations to the PTDI (Samoa, Niue, and Solomon Islands). In the same year the IFC/World Bank began funding the IVS in Papua New Guinea, work which is now funded direct by the PNG Government. In 2021 works has begun to bring onboard Tonga, Kiribati and Timor Leste.

Select a country below to learn more about the resources that have been developed.

Cook Islands

Vanuatu

Samoa

Niue

Solomon Islands

Papua New Guinea

Yap, FSM

Tonga

Kiribati

Timor Leste