Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that under the impact of the catastrophic typhoon on 23 August, visitors on package tours decreased by 6.1% year-on-year to 677,000 in August 2017, with a month-to-month decline of 14.6%. Package tour visitors from Mainland China (551,000) and Taiwan (34,000) dropped by 6.0% and 20.3% respectively year-on-year, while those from the Republic of Korea (34,000) rose by 5.2%. In the first eight months of 2017, visitors on package tours totalled 5,237,000, up by 8.8% year-on-year.
Outbound residents using services of travel agencies increased by 5.2% year-on-year to 116,000. Residents travelling on package tours went up by 10.9% to 47,000, with those going to Mainland China rising by 3.9% to 29,000. In the first eight months of 2017, outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 910,000, up by 11.3% year-on-year.
There were 107 hotels & guesthouses operating in August, of which 6 were still temporarily closed at the end of the month due to the destructive typhoon. Number of guest rooms increased by 10.2% year-on-year to 37,000, with 5-star hotel rooms rising by 2.0% to 22,000, accounting for 60.4% of the total.
Number of guests of hotels & guesthouses in August 2017 increased by 1.1% year-on-year to 1,095,000. Guests coming from Mainland China (727,000) and the Republic of Korea (50,000) rose by 5.1% and 75.3% respectively year-on-year, whereas those from Hong Kong (138,000) and Taiwan (39,000) dropped by 22.9% and 2.0%. The average length of stay of guests held stable as in August 2016, at 1.4 nights. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses went down by 4.6 percentage points year-on-year to 86.4%, with the rates of 4-star (88.3%) and 5-star hotels (87.5%) decreasing by 4.0 percentage points and 4.7 percentage points respectively.
In the first eight months of 2017, guests of hotels & guesthouses totalled 8,652,000, up by 13.7% year-on-year. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses rose by 3.5 percentage points to 85.3%. The average length of stay of guests held stable at 1.4 nights. Visitor-guests accounted for 72.4% of the total overnight visitors, up by 1.3 percentage points year-on-year.