Eco-cultural tourism in Marau Sound: Feasibility of developing community-based tourism in Marau Sound, Solomon Islands, to encourage conservation Eco-cultural tourism in Marau Sound: Feasibility of developing community-based tourism in Marau Sound, Solomon Islands, to encourage conservation Prepared by the Pacific Community for the New Zealand Department of Conservation and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environmental Programme June 2016 Pacific Community Suva, FiJi 2016 © Copyright Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) 2016 All rights for commercial/for profit reproduction or translation, in any form, reserved. SPC authorises the partial reproduction or translation of this material for scientific, educational or research purposes, provided that SPC and the source document are properly acknowledged. Permission to reproduce the document and/or translate in whole, in any form, whether for commercial/for profit or non-profit purposes, must be requested in writing. 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Original text: English iii Table of Contents 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 2 Situation analysis ......................................................................................................... 1 Tourism in Solomon Islands ......................................................................................................... 2 The Solomon Islands National Development Strategy 2011 to 2020 .............................................. 2 The Solomon Islands National Tourism Development Strategy ...................................................... 3 Tourism in Marau Sound .............................................................................................................. 4 Stakeholders ............................................................................................................................... 4 Ministry of Culture and Tourism ..................................................................................................... 4 Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau ..................................................................................................... 5 Other stakeholders .......................................................................................................................... 6 Marau community structure ........................................................................................................ 6 Social and cultural factors ............................................................................................................ 7 Environment ................................................................................................................................ 8 Destination viability .................................................................................................................... 8 3 Market analysis ............................................................................................................ 9 Demand analysis ....................................................................................................................... 10 Tourist arrivals ............................................................................................................................... 10 Demographics ............................................................................................................................... 11 Market segmentation ................................................................................................................ 15 Adventure tourists ........................................................................................................................ 15 Sport fishing .................................................................................................................................. 16 Bird watching ................................................................................................................................ 16 Dive market ................................................................................................................................... 16 Cruise market ................................................................................................................................ 17 Business travellers ......................................................................................................................... 17 Expatriates and domestic markets ................................................................................................ 18 4 Destination scoping .................................................................................................... 18 5 Tourism products ....................................................................................................... 22 Product viability ........................................................................................................................ 23 Product development needs ...................................................................................................... 23 Follow-up technical assistance ...................................................................................................... 27 6 Competitive analysis .................................................................................................. 27 Destination competition ............................................................................................................ 27 Vanuatu ......................................................................................................................................... 27 Western Province, Solomon Islands .............................................................................................. 27 Florida Islands ................................................................................................................................ 28 Competition – complimentary elements .................................................................................... 28 7 Business model and profit-sharing .............................................................................. 28 iv Participatory business planning ................................................................................................. 28 Community enterprise structure ................................................................................................ 29 Community benefit model ......................................................................................................... 32 Company name, vision and mission statement .......................................................................... 32 Community development needs ................................................................................................ 33 Potential partners ...................................................................................................................... 34 8 Impact assessment ..................................................................................................... 35 9 Challenges .................................................................................................................. 36 Private sector and market verification ....................................................................................... 39 10 Enterprise financial feasibility analysis ..................................................................... 39 Start-up costs ............................................................................................................................ 39 Estimated product prices ........................................................................................................... 40 Five-year projections ................................................................................................................. 40 Profit distribution ...................................................................................................................... 42 11 Recommendations ................................................................................................... 43 12 Annex 1: Marau eco-cultural tourism development findings from field visits ............ 44 Initial tourism scoping field visit ................................................................................................ 44 Community engagement and business planning ........................................................................ 46 Community context ....................................................................................................................... 46 Community participatory business planning .............................................................................. 47 Community tourism business structure ........................................................................................ 49 Community benefit model ............................................................................................................ 50 Company name, vision and mission statement ............................................................................. 51 Community development needs ................................................................................................... 52 Next steps ................................................................................................................................. 52 List of Figures Figure 1: International tourist arrivals