This island paradise only gets a few thousand visitors a year. It just scored a huge international recognition
Marquesas Islands: This group of French Polynesian islands are called Te Henua Enata in their native Marquesan language.
(CNN) — The Marquesas are a beautiful, remote stretch of islands in the South Pacific.
And, as of last weekend, they are also a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The latest UNESCO convention added 24 new properties to its famed list this year, including sites connected to the legacy of Nelson Mandela in South Africa, a rainforest rock cave complex in Malaysia and the ruins of a Swahili city in Kenya.
But few travelers have had the opportunity to experience Te Henua Enata (The Land of Men).
Comprised of 12 islands, half of which are populated, this French Polynesian region is home to about 9,000 people. The most populous of those is Nuku Hiva, which CNN Travel explored in 2021.
To find them on a map, look about 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) southeast of Hawaii and 4,700 kilometers (2,920 miles) east of Fiji.
Because of its remote location, French Polynesia – which includes Bora Bora and Tahiti – received about 220,000 foreign tourists in 2022. And even fewer of those tourists made it to the Marquesas.
According to data from the Institute of Statistics for French Polynesia (ISFP), 10,995 tourists visited the Marquesas in 2023. That is less than 2% of the total number of travelers to Tahiti. Two-thirds of them are French, which makes sense considering that the region is an overseas department of France.
The US is the second-biggest group of travelers to the islands, followed by China, Canada, Germany and the UK.
Most tourists arrive via Fa’a’ā International Airport in Tahiti, then come by boat to Nuku Hiva and the other Marquesan islands. The boat, the Aranui 5, is a dual-purpose vessel that brings people (about 230 of them, on average) and freight on 12-day cruises from Papeete, which is the capital of French Polynesia.
The Marquesas’ tourism industry is also managed out of Tahiti.
“This inscription is a unique opportunity to showcase the exceptional cultural and environmental heritage of the Marquesas Archipelago internationally,” Tahiti Tourism CEO Jean-Marc Mocellin said in a statement, adding that the UNESCO designation “will reinforce the positioning of the islands of Tahiti as an inclusive and sustainable tourism destination.”
In addition to its stunning geography, UNESCO recognized the Marquesas’ unique culture and heritage. The remote location and lack of human interference contribute to the waters around the islands being “among the world’s last marine wilderness areas.” It’s not unusual to see spinner dolphins doing acrobatics just offshore.
Marquesan wood carving, dance and music form part of the islands’ heritage. Painter Paul Gaugin, who is best known for his paintings of Tahiti, and Belgian singer Jacques Brel are both buried in a small cemetery on the island of Hiva Oa.
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