Solomon Islands has many of the ingredients required to create a booming tourism industry.
From world-class diving and surfing to picturesque islands and beaches, rich and vibrant culture, and significant World War II heritage: Solomon Islands has many unique experiences to offer, if only it were easier to secure access to land for tourism development.
It is a challenge known all-too-well by Solomon Islanders, and one that has stymied potential investors for decades. Solomon Islands will lag behind its Pacific Island neighbors if it does not address land access.
As international visitor numbers continue to recover post-pandemic, tourism can create jobs, support local business, and contribute to a more financially diverse and resilient economy.
But growth won’t come from increased visitor counts alone. It requires investment in accommodation, tourism products, services, and businesses that give people a reason to visit, stay longer, enjoy the local hospitality, and spend locally.
For investors considering a market with strong opportunity for growth like Solomon Islands, turning opportunity into viable tourism development is challenging.
Some significant barriers are invisible to the naked eye: policy implementation gaps, complex procedures, and limited awareness of the steps required to move from an idea to viable development.
Securing long-term access to suitable land; building agreement with communities, and; navigating regulatory requirements across multiple government agencies all play a major role in whether projects advance or stall.
These challenges sit at the heart of the Accessing Land for Tourism Investment Facilitation (ALTIF) project under the Solomon Islands Threshold Program (SITHP).
Funded by the American people through the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the project works in partnership with the Solomon Islands Government to secure access to land and facilitate the process of registering it so that it can be responsibly developed.
Instead of simply promoting Solomon Islands as an investment destination, SITHP is actively helping to establish clearer and more reliable pathways through which landowners, communities, and international investors can move from tourism potential towards investment.
The reason access to registered land is important for tourism is because investors need confidence that they can use a site over the long term before committing significant time and capital to its development.
In Solomon Islands, reaching that point can be complex.
Challenges exist not only in identifying suitable land, but in creating clear and trusted processes that lead to arrangements that provide certainty for everyone involved.
For example, more than 80 percent of land in Solomon Islands is customary, regulated by unwritten laws and oral tradition passed down from generation to generation.
As customary land is often not formally documented, using it for tourism site development can reduce investor confidence and halt projects before they begin.
To address this, recognizing and recording customary land plays a significant role in preventing conflict and clarifying people’s rights and boundaries.
As communities gain clarity, landowners and investors gain the confidence and mutual understanding to proceed with proposed projects.
SITHP is working with government and development partners to strengthen these processes and identify land with genuine potential for responsible tourism development.
Beyond access to land, successful tourism development depends on strong and mutually beneficial relationships with the communities around them.
This is where the concept of a social license becomes important.
Social licensing creates a practical, transparent process for investors, landowners, and communities to come to a shared understanding of a proposed development—expectations, responsibilities, benefits, and how issues are raised and resolved.
Addressing these issues early gives communities a meaningful voice in development, and investors gain greater confidence that their investment has the local support needed to succeed over the long term.
For SITHP, this approach is already being put into practice.
On Nafinua Island in East Makira, the program is working to strengthen the relationship between landowners and communities around Nafinua Surf Retreat through a social licensing model.
The process is helping establish clear expectations around tourism activities, defining community participation, and providing opportunities for locals to prepare for and benefit from tourism development—work that occurs long before any new infrastructure is built or visitors arrive.
In addition to social licensing, SITHP has also been working with government to identify sites for tourism investment, and collaborated with the Ministry of Lands Housing and Surveying, together with the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs, to initiate land titling outreach at selected sites.
These collaborative efforts are strengthening administrative processes around land title renewals, trustee transfers, and addressing regulatory barriers that complicate access to land for tourism development.
They also improve coordination on facilitating the construction of resort bungalows, jetties, and other infrastructure over seawater by bringing the right ministries to the table earlier and more consistently.
While a new resort or hotel is highly visible, the institutional, legal, and community work required to make that investment possible largely happens behind the scenes and involves the active participation of key stakeholders at all levels of planning and implementation.
A single tourism investment can touch many parts of government—land, tourism, commerce, investment registration, environment, infrastructure, maritime, and provincial authorities—each with its own procedures.
An investor considering tourism development needs clear answers to practical questions: what land is available; what can be developed; who needs to be consulted; which approvals are required, and; how can those processes be navigated through government and neighboring communities.
SITHP helps bring agencies together, streamline steps, and provide a clear process for landowners and investors to navigate land access and development.
Long-term tourism growth depends on development that works for all stakeholders.
By improving certainty around access to registered land, strengthening local participation in decision-making, and clarifying government processes, SITHP supports growth that delivers lasting results: jobs, new demand for local goods and services, and tangible opportunities for communities to benefit from tourism.
Taken together, these wider benefits are a more meaningful measure of success than visitor numbers alone.
New tourism investment reaches well beyond a resort, golf course, or tourism operator. It supports local farmers and fishers, transport providers, tradespeople, tour guides, and other small businesses.
As Solomon Islands continues to diversify its economy, creating the conditions for responsible tourism helps keep more tourism expenditure within the country and generate opportunities for locals.
The challenge is not just attracting more tourists—it is translating tourism growth into broader and longer-term economic development that continues beyond the life of the program.
Solomon Islands already has the natural beauty, rich culture and history, and experiences that make it a fantastic tourism destination. By building clear pathways to registered land, strengthening relationships between communities and investors, and improving government coordination, SITHP is helping turn that potential into responsible investment.
Visitors may never see this work, but it is fundamental to creating a tourism industry that attracts investment, creates opportunities, and delivers lasting economic benefits for Solomon Islanders.
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Photo: Nafinua Surf Retreat is a popular destination for tourists. Credit: Nafinua Surf Retreat
