Advertising targetting the European market takes a large chunk of Samoa Tourism Authority's marketing budget but the destination has the least number of visitors to the country. 

The details of the marketing budget of the S.T.A. and the regions that it focused on were highlighted in the authority's main budget for 2023-2024 with a marketing budget of SAT$1.6 million out of the total SAT$7.1 million which has been allocated to the S.T.A. 

A cost breakdown of the marketing done by the S.T.A. targeting five destinations showed New Zealand having the highest spending of SAT$713,000 followed by the United Kingdom/Europe (SAT$371,000). 

The North American market was allocated a marketing budget of SAT$186,000 while  American Samoa got SAT$162,000 and the Asian market SAT$152,000. 

The Samoa Bureau of Statistics report for the first and second quarters of this year shows New Zealand is the leading country in visitor arrivals accounting for almost 50 per cent of the total.

The statistics for the same period also record Australia as having the second-highest number of arrivals followed by the United States of America and then American Samoa. 

Despite the S.T.A. allocating its second-highest marketing budget to the European market, the S.B.S. has reported that the European market has the lowest share of arrivals of around 2 per cent. 

But recent statistics also show that Asia has more travellers to Samoa about 6.6. per cent in the second quarter of the year. The current marketing budget promoting Samoa abroad as an international destination is a lot less compared to a total of $7 million approved in the 2020-2021 budget.  

Australia was one of the destinations targeted by the former government which allocated SAT$2.4 million compared to the current budget when has had to cut expenditure to promote Samoa in the country. 

Ireland was another destination eyed by S.T.A. in 2020 but this allocation has since been slashed in the administration's 2023-2024 financial plan.