Package tours and hotel occupancy rate for August 2015

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitors on package tours totalled 905,000 in August 2015, up by 8.0% from 838,000 in July and yet down by 20.5% year-on-year. Package tour visitors from Mainland China (777,000) decreased by 17.2% year-on-year, while those from Taiwan (46,000), Hong Kong (21,000), the Republic of Korea (13,000) and Japan (11,000) dropped by 33.6%, 25.3%, 65.6% and 22.5% respectively. Visitors arriving on package tours totalled 849,000, down by 11.2% year-on-year; meanwhile, visitors joining local tours decreased by 69.5% to 56,000. In the first eight months of 2015, visitors on package tours totalled 6,685,000, down by 5.4% year-on-year; those arriving on package tours decreased by 3.6% to 5,609,000. Outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 142,000 in August 2015, down by 8.6% year-on-year; those travelling on package tours increased by 6.5% to 59,000, and the main destinations were Mainland China (82.6% of total), Taiwan (6.5%) and Hong Kong (3.6%). In the first eight months of 2015, outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 1,012,000, up slightly by 0.1% year-on-year. There were 102 hotels and guesthouses operating at the end of August 2015, providing 30,000 guest rooms, up by 7.2% year-on-year. Number of guest rooms in 5-star hotels totalled 20,000, accounting for 66.6% of the total supply. Number of guests checking into hotels and guesthouses reached 999,000, up by 3.6% year-on-year. Guests from Mainland China (652,000) and Hong Kong (156,000) increased by 2.1% and 24.7% respectively. The average length of stay of guests held stable as August 2014, at 1.4 nights. The average occupancy rate of hotels and guesthouses was 84.4%, up by 2.7 percentage points month-to-month and yet down by 5.6 percentage points year-on-year. Meanwhile, the occupancy rate of 5-star and 4-star hotels led at 85.4% and 85.0%, down by 5.6 and 7.3 percentage points respectively year-on-year. In the first eight months of 2015, guests of hotels and guesthouses totalled 6,751,000 and the average occupancy rate stood at 79.5%, down by 6.4% and 7.0 percentage points respectively year-on-year. Visitor-guests accounted for 67.9% of the total overnight visitors, down by 1.0 percentage point year-on-year.