Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals in package tours surged by 43.6% year-on-year to 634,993 in January 2012, attributable to the Lunar New Year holidays. Visitors from Mainland China (424,234) increased by 34.1%, with 176,498 from Guangdong Province. Moreover, visitors from Taiwan, China (60,273); Hong Kong (41,877); and the Republic of Korea (34,428) soared by 151.5%, 139.0% and 43.2% respectively year-on-year. Outbound residents travelling in package tours increased by 44.1% year-on-year to 26,272 in January 2012. The most popular tour itineraries were Mainland China (69.5% of total); Malaysia (6.4%); and Taiwan, China (5.1%), with 13,532 travelling to Guangdong Province. Meanwhile, outbound residents travelling under own arrangements using services of travel agencies soared by 56.5% year-on-year to 67,383; the main destinations were Mainland China (59.4% of total); Hong Kong (21.2%); and Taiwan, China (7.5%). Number of available guest rooms of the 95 hotels and guest-houses reached 22,338 at the end of January 2012, an increase of 2,239 rooms (+11.1%) year-on-year, with those of the 5-star hotels accounting for 63.5% of the total. Hotels and guest-houses received 699,233 guests in January 2012, an increase of 9.1% year-on-year; the average length of stay increased by 0.02 night to 1.5 nights. The average occupancy rate of hotels and guest-houses stood at 79.1%, down by 0.4 percentage point year-on-year; average occupancy rate of the hotels was 79.6%, with 5-star hotels reaching 81.3%. In January 2012, visitor-guests accounted for 59.1% of the total number of tourists (overnight visitors), lower than 63.7% in January 2011.
