Whale Watching Worldwide

References:
Research for this country was taken from the Pacific Islands Whale Watch Tourism report undertaken by Economists at
Large for IFAW. 2005 data from that report have been projected forward to 2008 at an average annual growth rate of
2.4% based on UN World Tourism Organisation regional growth data.
Tonga
Year Number of
whale
watchers
AAGR Number of
operators
Direct
expenditure
Indirect
expenditure
Total
expenditure
1991 None N/A None None None None
1994 200 N/A N/A $10,000 $25,000 $35,000
1998 2,334 85% 5+ $55,000 $367,000 $422,000
2006 9,804 20% 14 $749,959 $1,130,418 $1,893,052
2008 9,804 15.4% 69 14 $980,400 $1,130,418 $2,110,818
Capital City: Nuku’alofa
Whale Watch Locations:
01: Vava’u
Whale watching continues to contribute strongly to the Kingdom of
Tonga’s economy, with whales an iconic species for the tourism
industry. In 2008, there were more than 9,800 whale watch
participants in Tonga, representing average annual growth of 15%
since 1998, with a large majority of these whale watchers
undertaking trips in the northern islands of Vava’u. The lack of
change between 2006 and 2008 reflects the lack of growth in vessel
capacity and license holders in Tonga. As was identified in the
previous report (see reference below), capacity is close to being reached in whale watching in Tonga,
particularly at Vava’u, and particularly in terms of number of boats relative to the number of whales
encountered. This is the main reason that no new operator licenses have been distributed.
It should be recognized that the figure of 9,800 whale watchers above is made up of only about 3,200 whale
watch tourists across the country. In Tonga, as in only the minority of whale watching locations in the world,
many of the tourists undertake multiple whale watch trips on their visit to the islands, with some
undertaking up to 5 trips during their stay. As such, the figure represents the number of trips rather than
the number of tourists. This is consistent with the methodology of this report; see the methodology section
above for more detail on this.
Whale watchers in Tonga generated a total estimated expenditure of approximately $2.1 million in 2008.
Direct expenditure figures have grown slightly since our previous report due to the fact (highlighted in the
last report) that ticket prices have been slowly increasing in Vava’u. Indirect expenditures are assumed to
have remained reasonably constant.
Humpback whales migrate from Antarctica to Tonga annually, remaining from the end of July until the end
of October in the protected, warm waters to reproduce. As a result, a strong boat‐based whale watching
industry has grown from Vava’u to take tourists to view the humpbacks. The recent years have seen the
69 AAGR from 1998 to 2008
196