Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitor arrivals totalled 2,486,383 in September 2017, up by 2.4% year-on-year but down by 13.3% month-to-month. Overnight visitors (1,382,026) increased by 5.4% year-on-year while same-day visitors (1,104,357) decreased by 1.0%. The average length of stay of visitors (1.3 days) held steady year-on-year, with that of overnight visitors and same-day visitors remaining unchanged at 2.2 days and 0.2 day respectively.
Visitors from Mainland China increased by 9.2% year-on-year to 1,721,858 in September, with those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme rising by 3.8% to 714,960. Mainland visitors came mainly from Guangdong Province (642,184), Hunan Province (85,110) and Fujian Province (72,723). Visitors from the Republic of Korea (60,940) recorded a 10.6% growth, while those from Hong Kong (451,307) and Taiwan (86,183) went down by 14.3% and 5.8% respectively. Long-haul visitors from the United States (12,269), Australia (7,186), Canada (5,044) and the United Kingdom (4,077) registered decreases.
Analysed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by land (1,414,393) grew by 2.6% year-on-year, with those arriving through the Border Gate (1,241,637) rising by 2.9%. Visitor arrivals by sea (858,995) edged down by 0.3% year-on-year; those disembarking at the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal (532,817) increased by 5.4% while those arriving at the Taipa Ferry Terminal (326,178) dropped by 8.3%. Visitor arrivals by air (212,995) increased by 14.2% year-on-year, with those arriving at the airport (212,045) recording the same growth rate.
In the first three quarters of 2017, visitor arrivals totalled 23,835,039, up by 4.2% year-on-year; overnight visitors (12,636,728) rose by 10.8% while same-day visitors (11,198,311) dropped by 2.3%. 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 staying at 0.2 day. Visitors from Mainland China (16,087,866) and the Republic of Korea (644,109) increased by 6.3% and 34.9% respectively year-on-year, while those from Hong Kong (4,655,990) and Taiwan (802,238) decreased by 2.9% and 0.9% respectively. Meanwhile, visitors from Canada (52,458) went up year-on-year, whereas those from the United States (132,923), Australia (63,160) and the United Kingdom (41,518) recorded decreases.