Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitors on package tours rose by 39.6% year-on-year to 996,000 in March 2019. Package tour visitors from Mainland China (803,000), the Republic of Korea (63,000) and Hong Kong (20,000) surged by 47.5%, 31.1% and 47.1% respectively, and those from Taiwan (61,000) went up by 11.3%. In the first quarter of 2019, there were 2,479,000 package tour visitors, an increase of 16.5% year-on-year.
As the Easter holiday began at end-March in 2018 but in mid-April this year, outbound residents using services of travel agencies in March 2019 decreased by 10.1% year-on-year to 121,000. Residents travelling under own arrangements edged down by 0.5% to 81,000, with those going to Mainland China (34,000), Hong Kong (14,000) and Taiwan (14,000) together accounting for 76.7% of the total. Meanwhile, residents travelling on package tours dropped by 24.8% to 40,000, owing to a fall of 12.0% in those visiting Mainland China (32,000). In the first quarter of 2019, outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 399,000, up by 2.6% year-on-year.
There were 117 hotels & guesthouses operating at the end of March 2019, an increase of 2 year-on-year. Number of available guest rooms grew by 2.2% year-on-year to 39,000, with 5-star hotel rooms rising by 3.1% to 24,000 (62.9% of total).
A total of 1,186,000 guests checked into hotels & guesthouses in March 2019, a growth of 3.2% year-on-year. Guests coming from Mainland China (835,000) and the Republic of Korea (45,000) increased by 8.2% and 11.0% respectively, whereas those from Hong Kong (104,000) and Taiwan (37,000) dropped by 20.9% and 5.8%. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses went up by 1.7 percentage points year-on-year to 90.7%, with the rates of 3-star hotels (93.4%) and 5-star hotels (91.9%) rising by 1.6 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points respectively. The average length of stay of guests held steady year-on-year at 1.4 nights.
In the first quarter of 2019, guests of hotels & guesthouses totalled 3,516,000, up by 4.5% year-on-year. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses rose by 1.8 percentage points to 91.8%. The average length of stay of guests remained stable at 1.5 nights. Visitor-guests constituted 70.9% of the total overnight visitors, down by 2.4 percentage points year-on-year.