Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that attributable to the catastrophic typhoon on 23 August, visitor arrivals edged down by 0.6% year-on-year to 2,866,400 in August 2017, down by 1.8% month-to-month. Same-day visitors (1,318,619) decreased by 6.2% year-on-year while overnight visitors (1,547,781) increased by 4.8%. The average length of stay of visitors went up by 0.1 day year-on-year to 1.3 days, with that of overnight visitors (2.2 days) rising by 0.1 day and that of same-day visitors remaining unchanged at 0.2 day.
Visitors from Mainland China increased by 1.9% year-on-year to 2,016,846 in August, with those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme dropping slightly by 0.4% to 1,002,628. Mainland visitors came mainly from Guangdong Province (841,638) and Hunan Province (93,692). Visitors from Hong Kong (529,676) and Taiwan (92,580) decreased by 10.5% and 1.9% respectively year-on-year, while those from the Republic of Korea (75,548) grew by 30.8%. Meanwhile, visitors from the United States (11,933), Canada (4,843), Australia (4,567) and the United Kingdom (4,336) registered decreases.
Analysed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by land (1,653,800) went down by 1.1% year-on-year, with those arriving through the Border Gate (1,413,462) decreasing by 2.3%. Visitor arrivals by sea (965,955) dropped by 2.8% year-on-year; those disembarking at the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal (595,359) and the Taipa Ferry Terminal (370,596) fell by 0.2% and 6.6% respectively. Visitor arrivals by air (246,645) grew by 13.5% year-on-year, with those arriving at the airport (245,667) rising by 13.4%.
In the first eight months of 2017, visitor arrivals totalled 21,348,656, up by 4.4% year-on-year; overnight visitors (11,254,702) rose by 11.5% while same-day visitors (10,093,954) dropped by 2.4%. The average length of stay of visitors (1.2 days) held stable year-on-year, with that of overnight visitors (2.1 days) falling by 0.1 day and that of same-day visitors remaining at 0.2 day. Visitors from Mainland China (14,366,008) and the Republic of Korea (583,169) increased by 5.9% and 38.1% respectively year-on-year, while those from Hong Kong (4,204,683) and Taiwan (716,055) decreased by 1.5% and 0.2% respectively. Meanwhile, visitors from the United States (120,654) and Canada (47,414) saw year-on-year increases, whereas those from Australia (55,974) and the United Kingdom (37,441) recorded decreases.