PAPEETE, Tahiti (Tahitipresse, Nov. 2) – September's 19,828 tourists was the highest September volume over the past four years, which the Temaru government attributed Wednesday to the first signs of success of Air Tahiti Nui's new Sydney-Papeete and New York-Papeete flights and strong performances in the European markets.
"The recovery that started in August was confirmed in September," a Tourism Ministry analysis stated. "Overall there were a few more tourists in September 2005 compared with September 2004—307 more.
"More Americans (not including cruise ship passengers), more Europeans, lots more Australians, a stable number of French, fewer New Zealanders and a lot fewer Japanese" highlighted the Tourism Ministry's analysis.
However, the net result for the first nine months of 2005 was 153,927 foreign visitors, or 2.95 percent fewer than for the same period last year. Last year, the first nine months produced 158,613 foreign visitors, or 4,686 more than this...