New Caledonia New Caledonia New Caledonia (; ) is a special collectivity of France in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Chesterfield Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of Pines, and a few remote islets. The Chesterfield Islands are in the Coral Sea. Locals refer to Grande Terre as "" ("the pebble"). New Caledonia has a land area of . Its population of 268,767 (August 2014 census) consists of a mix of Kanak people (the original inhabitants of New
Tourism in New Caledonia Tourism in New Caledonia New Caledonia was "largely indifferent to tourists ... as long as nickel mining remained economically dominant". After the Korean War and Vietnam War, world prices for nickel collapsed (1970s) and aggressive marketing campaigns were initiated for the territory. Cheap tourist packages were offered to Australians promising the 'Paris of the Pacific' and visitor numbers increased from less than 5000 to 20,000 in just 5 years. 37,000 tourists annually took cruises (mostly from Australia) and this allowed more hotels to be built in the 1970s and, in 1979, Club Mediterranee arrived. The tourist market had shifted by