The Republic of the Marshall Islands may be one of the Pacific’s lesser-visited destinations, but it is beginning to take a far more deliberate approach to tourism, with both eyes firmly on the future.
This week, the island nation launched its first International Visitors Survey, a modest initiative perhaps, but an important one. For a destination that currently receives fewer than 7,000 international visitors a year, understanding exactly who is arriving — and why is the first step toward shaping a tourism industry that actually works for the country.
The survey has been developed through a regional partnership involving the Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO), the RMI Office of Commerce, Investment and Tourism, RMI Immigration, the Economic Policy, Planning and Statistics Office (EPPSO), the RMI Ports Authority, and airline partners, including Nauru Airlines.
Behind the project sits a broader ambition.
The survey follows the release of the Marshall Islands Sustainable Tourism Policy and Development Strategy 2025–2030, a framework designed to grow tourism carefully while protecting the natural environment and cultural identity that make the islands distinctive in the first place.
It is, in many ways, a refreshingly pragmatic plan.
Among the strategy’s targets is a 35 per cent increase in tourism’s contribution to national GDP by 2030, alongside a rise in holiday visitors and in the number of Marshallese citizens returning to visit family and reconnect with home.
Improving connectivity is also firmly on the agenda. The strategy highlights the importance of strengthening air links between Honolulu and Majuro, currently one of the primary gateways for international travellers reaching the islands.
Accommodation capacity in Majuro, the capital, is also expected to expand as tourism infrastructure slowly develops.
And slowly is very much the operative word.
Unlike some Pacific destinations that have grappled with the unintended consequences of rapid visitor growth, the Marshall Islands appears determined to grow tourism at a measured pace.
With a population of around 60,000 people, the country’s appeal lies less in large resorts and more in the quiet authenticity of island life.
Stretching across a vast area of the central Pacific roughly halfway between Hawaii and Australia, the nation consists of 64 coral atolls and volcanic islands, many still uninhabited.
For travellers who make the journey, the reward is a destination rich in marine life, diving opportunities, cultural traditions and ocean exploration, wrapped in the easy warmth typical of Pacific communities.
To encourage participation in the survey, visitors who complete it will be entered into a draw for airline tickets from Nauru Airlines and United Airlines.
It’s a small incentive, perhaps, but a clever one.
For the Marshall Islands, tourism is not about chasing mass arrivals. It is about understanding visitors, planning wisely, and ensuring that, when growth inevitably comes — and it will — it benefits the people who call these islands home.
In today’s travel industry, that sort of foresight is not just sensible.
It is increasingly essential.
by Octavia Koo – (c) 2026.
Read Time: 2 minutes.
About the Writer.
Octavia Koo arrived in Australia from Indonesia in the early eighties, drawn by Sydney’s creative pull and a place at UNSW. Studying Arts, she quickly developed an eye for visual storytelling, starting in graphic design before naturally moving into web development and crafting copy that invited people in and kept them there.
Singapore came next. There, she ran blogs for tourism platforms and developed an instinct for SEO well before it had a name, working the corridors of ITB Asia and learning how stories travel online. There, she met Stephen, who suggested Global Travel Media.
A few years later, she joined.
Today, Octavia is part of GTM’s editorial family, bringing a quiet brilliance to every piece, blending art, technology, and intuition to make travel stories both charming and effective, much like their author.
