Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that in view of the National Day holiday and the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, visitor arrivals surged by 23.2% month-to-month to 3,154,291 in October 2018, corresponding to a year-on-year increase of 9.2%. Overnight visitors (1,549,891) and same-day visitors (1,604,400) grew by 5.4% and 13.2% respectively year-on-year. The average length of stay of visitors held steady year-on-year at 1.2 days, with that of overnight visitors rising by 0.1 day to 2.3 days and that of same-day visitors staying at 0.2 day.
Visitors from Mainland China increased by 12.1% year-on-year to 2,306,844 in October, and 1,105,993 of them travelled under the Individual Visit Scheme, up by 15.2%. Mainland visitors came primarily from Guangdong Province (1,001,563) and Hunan Province (110,850). Visitors from Hong Kong (509,369) rose by 9.3%, whereas those from the Republic of Korea (60,240) and Taiwan (81,846) dropped by 25.2% and 3.9% respectively. Meanwhile, visitors from the United States (18,404), Australia (8,254) and the United Kingdom (5,741) registered year-on-year increases, while those from Canada (6,320) decreased.
Analysed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by land grew by 18.7% year-on-year to 2,015,701; those arriving through the Border Gate (1,685,508) rose by 14.4%, and arrivals through the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge totalled 71,640 in the first eight days after its opening. Visitor arrivals by air increased by 14.7% year-on-year to 286,117. Meanwhile, visitor arrivals by sea dropped by 9.4% to 852,473, with those disembarking at the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal (496,789) and the Taipa Ferry Terminal (355,684) decreasing by 14.2% and 1.7% respectively.
In the first ten months of 2018, visitor arrivals totalled 28,967,555, up by 8.4% year-on-year; overnight visitors (15,162,438) and same-day visitors (13,805,117) grew by 7.5% and 9.4% respectively. 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 (0.2 day) remaining unchanged. Analysed by country/place, visitors from Mainland China (20,527,999) increased by 13.1%, while those from the Republic of Korea (667,941), Hong Kong (5,055,123) and Taiwan (885,833) dropped by 7.8%, 1.3% and 0.2% respectively. Visitors from the United States (159,661), Australia (71,828) and the United Kingdom (46,948) recorded year-on-year growth, whereas those from Canada (58,116) saw decrease.