Tourism has become one of the major income earners and employers of local workers in the Pacific. Fiji attracts more tourists than any other Pacific Island nation, with 500,280 visitors in 2004. In 1989 tourism surpassed sugar as Fiji's prime source of foreign income. French Polynesia was the second most popular tourist destination. In 2004 it had 211,889 visitors, the majority of whom stayed on Tahiti. Most tourist facilities are owned by foreigners, however, and much of the profit from tourism leaves the Pacific.

The Pacific Islands or Oceania, are the more than 25,000 islands and islets of 25 nations and territories spread over the western and central Pacific Ocean. Although the Pacific Islands are scattered across millions of square kilometers, their total land area is just 1,261,456 sq km (487,051 sq mi)-slightly larger than South Africa, slightly smaller than Peru, and four-fifths the size of Alaska.