The month of February 2025 saw unprecedented visits by six cruise ships bringing to Tonga close to 10,000 visitors during a period of 27 days. The biggest of the cruise ships was the Queen Anne, operated by the Cunard Line which brought close to 3000 visitors to the kingdom in late February.
Most of the passengers on the Queen Anne were from Europe. It is the second largest ship of the Cunard Line.
Another ship, Azamara, a “5-star boutique hotel” had a capacity of 900 passengers, and came from the USA.
Jones Travel of the EM Jones Group, was the agent handling the cruise ships that visited in February. It handles 80% of all cruise ships visiting Tonga.
In 2024 there wee 33 cruise ships visiting Tonga, including visits to the outer islands of Vava’u, Ha’apai, and Niua.
Cruise ships are now the means by which most foreign tourists are visiting Tonga.
Poli Toma Sakalia from Jones Travel told Talanoa ‘o Tonga that cruise ships visitors bring in a lot of money to Tonga. “Each cruise ship that comes to Tonga pays a port and wharfage fee to government, and that adds up to a lot of money,” he said.
But it’s the ground tours organised for the passengers that bring in money to the tour businesses, transportation services like buses and taxis, as well as shopping for handicrafts and other things.
Sakalia said there are pre-arranged tours by the ship and the local agent, such as historic and cultural tours.
A typical tour could involve visits to the Palace, the Royal Tomb, Flying foxes at Tofoa, Blow Holes, Captain Cook, Ha’amonga, and Fua’amotu beach for swimming. These tours could also include a lunch reception at ‘Oholei Beach, Liku’alofa, or Ancient Tonga.
All ground tours are guided with paid tour guides, and at times language guided tours in French and Chinese Mandarin.
“The biggest single tour I’ve arranged involved 1008 people in 2024,” Sakalia said. “Each visitor can spend an average of $300 a day on payments to buses and taxis, the tours, meals, and of-course shopping for things locally.”
“Spread that expenditure among 1000 people, and you’d be looking at over $300,000 coming into the country for a day’s visit,” he said.
Tourism is one of the top revenue sources for the country. Sakalia says that if that is the case, all bodies like the Ministry of Tourism, shipping agencies, tourism businesses, and the people of Tonga need to work together for the development of the industry.
