Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitors on package tours totalled 784,000 in October, a growth of 12.7% month-to-month, yet down by 2.0% year-on-year. Package tour visitors from Mainland China (615,000) and Hong Kong (11,000) dropped by 6.8% and 11.4% year-on-year respectively, while those from the Republic of Korea (52,000) and Taiwan (62,000) surged by 38.4% and 50.1%. In the first ten months of 2018, visitors on package tours totalled 7,288,000, up by 7.1% year-on-year.
Outbound residents using services of travel agencies grew by 12.4% year-on-year to 135,000. Number of residents travelling on package tours fell by 8.7% to 42,000, with those visiting to Mainland China rising by 19% to 34,000 (81.1% of total). In the first ten months of 2018, outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 1,295,000, up by 13.9% year-on-year.
There were 116 hotels & guesthouses operating at the end of October 2018, an increase of 7 year-on-year. Number of guest rooms grew by 5.7% year-on-year to 39,000; with 5-star hotel rooms increasing by 9.3% to 24,000, accounting for 63.0% of the total.
Number of guests of hotels & guesthouses in October 2018 rose by 6.2% year-on-year to 1,163,000. Guests coming from Mainland China (823,000) and Hong Kong (116,000) increased by 11.3% and 5.9% respectively, whereas those from the Republic of Korea (35,000) and Taiwan (35,000) decreased by 24.9% and 8.6%. The average length of stay of guests held steady year-on-year at 1.5 nights. Meanwhile, the average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses went up by 0.7 percentage points year-on-year to 89.8%, with the rates of 5-star and 4-star hotels reaching 91.0% and 90.8%, up by 1.2 percentage points and 1.7 percentage points respectively.
In the first ten months of 2018, guests of hotels & guesthouses totalled 11,644,000, up by 7.6% year-on-year. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses rose by 4.3 percentage points to 90.4% and the average length of stay of guests remained at 1.5 nights. Visitor-guests accounted for 72.5% of the total overnight visitors, an increase of 0.3 percentage points year-on-year.