Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitor arrivals in January 2017 increased by 17.6% year-on-year to 2,876,046 as the Lunar New Year, that fell in February last year, happened in January this year. Compared to December 2016, visitor arrivals went up by 2.2%. Overnight visitors increased by 18.9% year-on-year to 1,363,046 while same-day visitors rose by 16.4% to 1,513,000. The average length of stay of visitors was 1.1 days, down by 0.1 day year-on-year; the average stay of overnight visitors dropped by 0.1 day to 2.1 days whereas that of same-day visitors remained unchanged at 0.2 day.
Visitors from Mainland China increased by 20.4% year-on-year to 1,997,355 in January, with those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme (1,128,516) surging by 43.8%. Mainland visitors came mainly from Guangdong Province (991,220) and Hunan Province (70,718). Visitors from the Republic of Korea (81,448) and Hong Kong (527,218) both increased by 17.6% while those from Taiwan (84,263) dropped by 2.0%. Long-haul visitors from the United States (15,434), Canada (6,089) and the United Kingdom (4,163) increased year-on-year whereas those from Australia (9,230) decreased.
Analysed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by land increased by 19.8% year-on-year to 1,798,536; those arriving through the Border Gate (1,527,153) rose by 15.0% while those through the Checkpoint of Cotai (270,214) soared by 57.3%. Visitor arrivals by sea increased by 14.1% year-on-year to 859,949; those disembarking at the Outer Harbour (551,151) and the Provisional Ferry Terminal in Taipa (308,798) rose by 16.4% and 15.3% respectively. Visitor arrivals by air increased by 13.8% year-on-year to 217,561, with those arriving at the airport (216,775) rising by 13.8%.