Visitor arrivals for December 2015

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitor arrivals saw month-to-month increase in December, but the annual total for 2015 decreased by 2.6% year-on-year. Visitor arrivals totalled 2,634,098 in December 2015, up by 3.7% year-on-year and 1.7% month-to-month. Overnight visitors rose by 14.2% to 1,330,283, accounting for 50.5% of the total, the highest percentage recorded since January 2013. The average length of stay of visitors increased by 0.3 day year-on-year to 1.2 days; the average stay of overnight visitors (2.2 days) rose by 0.3 day while that of same-day visitors (0.2 day) remained unchanged. For the whole year of 2015, visitor arrivals totalled 30,714,628, down by 811,004 year-on-year; same-day visitors (16,406,861) and overnight visitors (14,307,767) decreased by 3.3% and 1.8% respectively. The average length of stay of visitors was 1.1 days in 2015, up by 0.1 day year-on-year. Visitors from Mainland China increased by 1.1% year-on-year to 1,656,704 in December 2015, with those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme (736,950) edging down by 0.5%. Visitors from Hong Kong (591,319), the Republic of Korea (54,880) and Taiwan (85,129) increased by 8.3%, 15.9% and 8.9% respectively, while those from Malaysia (33,981) dropped slightly by 0.9%. Visitors from the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom registered year-on-year increase. Meanwhile, visitor arrivals by land (1,473,867) and by air (193,916) rose by 12.9% and 10.0% respectively year-on-year, while those arriving by sea (966,315) dropped by 8.7%. In 2015, visitors from Mainland China decreased by 4.0% year-on-year to 20,410,615, coming mainly from Guangdong Province (9,043,931), up modestly by 0.4%, followed by Fujian Province (872,291) and Hunan Province (810,502). Mainland visitors travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme dropped by 0.5% year-on-year to 9,519,317, with 71.2% coming from Guangdong Province and 4.8% from Shanghai. Visitors from Hong Kong (6,534,543) and Taiwan (988,059) increased by 1.7% and 3.6%, while those from the Republic of Korea (554,177) edged down by 0.1%. Moreover, long-haul visitors from the United States (182,532) and Canada (70,973) rose marginally by 0.6% and 0.5% year-on-year respectively, while those from Australia (92,404) and the United Kingdom (59,985) declined by 12.8% and 1.3%. Overnight visitors decreased by 1.8% year-on-year to 14,307,767 in 2015, attributable to a 5.1% drop in those from Mainland China (9,234,150); meanwhile, overnight visitors from Hong Kong (3,065,380) and Taiwan (450,795) increased by 9.9% and 10.0%. Overnight visitors accounted for 46.6% of the total visitors, up by 0.4 percentage points. The average stay of overnight visitors (2.1 days) rose by 0.2 day, while that of same-day visitors (0.2 day) remained unchanged. Analyzed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by land decreased by 1.0% year-on-year to 17,210,946; visitors arriving via the Border Gate (88.2% of total) dropped by 2.6% to 15,176,480, while those via the Checkpoint of Cotai (2,009,551) rose by 13.1%. Visitor arrivals by sea decreased by 5.5% year-on-year to 11,413,908, with those arriving via the Outer Harbour (6,992,837) and the Provisional Ferry Terminal in Taipa (4,098,894) dropping by 5.0% and 3.4% respectively. Moreover, visitor arrivals by air increased by 1.7% year-on-year to 2,089,774, and those entering via the airport (2,076,926) rose by 2.5%.