It may boast clear turquoise seas and white golden sands, but the southwestern Pacific island of New Caledonia suffered a black year for tourism in 2024. Provoked by deep divisions over political independence from France, violent riots that killed more than ten people broke out in May 2024, prompting the effective collapse of the sector.
The deadly civil unrest led to the declaration of a state of emergency, the closure of Tontouta, the island’s international airport, as well as blockades on surrounding roads, and curfews. Unsurprisingly, with “Do Not Travel” alerts emitted by foreign government agencies, visitor numbers plummeted.
Cruises and friends-and-family visitors offer hope
Unlike Covid-19, during which border closures saw New Caledonian tourism grind to a halt, 2024’s riots did not completely kill the sector, however new preliminary figures from the Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (ISEE) now show that the overall impact of the disorder across the year was grave. Just 59,399 tourists (excluding cruise passengers) arrived over the four quarters, a fall of 53% compared to 2023. Worse, while the sector was hoping to pick up in the last two quarters, it collapsed further, by 73%. And on the water, the picture was not much brighter, with 191,528 cruise passengers going to New Caledonia in 2024, a drop of 44%.
December, however, did offer glimmers of hope, with visitor numbers rising back up to 5200 for the month. That’s 60% of those seen in the first months of the year before the troubles. The majority were friends-and-family-motivated, with long-haul arrivals from metropolitan France representing 2633 of the guests. Wallis and Futuna, another French Pacific collectivity with which New Caledonia has former administrative ties, provided 852 visitors, while Australian tourists made up 675.
A breath of fresh air as alert levels readjust
Another reason for local stakeholders to be positive is that cruise numbers now appear to be recovering. In November and December 2024, monthly traffic caught up slightly to half of 2023’s figures and bookings for 2025 are now at 75%, data described as “encouraging” by Julie Laronde, New Caledonia’s tourism director. “The return of the cruise market is a real breath of fresh air for many tourism operators in Nouméa and Lifou,” she said.
Many tour operators remain reluctant to send clients to New Caledonia, whose destination safety ranking suffered greatly as a result of the year’s events. Nonetheless, Australia lowered its alert level in January 2025, from a Level 3 of 4 “Reconsider Travel”, to Level 2 “Exercise a high degree of caution.” Laronde has said she is looking forward to further adjustments from Australia and around the world as the year goes on.
