Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitor arrivals totalled 3,396,835 in May 2019, an increase of 25.6% year-on-year. Overnight visitors (1,598,097) grew by 10.3% while same-day visitors (1,798,738) surged by 43.3%. As the proportion of same-day visitors expanded by 6.5 percentage points year-on-year to 53.0%, the average length of stay of visitors shortened by 0.1 day to 1.2 days. Overnight visitors stayed an average of 2.3 days, up by 0.1 day; meanwhile, the average length of stay of same-day visitors held stable at 0.2 day.
Visitors from Mainland China increased by 30.4% year-on-year to 2,425,741, with those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme (1,109,137) rising by 29.9%. Mainland visitors came primarily from Guangdong Province (1,059,429) and Hunan Province (119,401). Visitors from the Republic of Korea (65,763), Hong Kong (581,780) and Taiwan (87,837) rose by 1.2%, 20.1% and 4.4% respectively year-on-year. Meanwhile, visitors from the nine Pearl River Delta cities in the Greater Bay Area surged by 45.8% year-on-year to 924,272; those coming from Zhuhai and Guangzhou totalled 256,279 and 195,538 respectively, representing notable increases of 64.9% and 39.8%.
Analysed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by land soared by 64.2% year-on-year to 2,525,698 in May, with 1,768,211 (+32.2%) arriving through the Border Gate and 517,060 via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. Visitor arrivals by air grew by 21.3% year-on-year to 324,218, whereas those by sea declined by 39.2% to 546,919.
In the first five months of 2019, visitor arrivals reached 17,188,780, up by 21.0% year-on-year. Overnight visitors (7,957,408) and same-day visitors (9,231,372) rose by 8.7% and 34.0% respectively. The average length of stay of visitors shortened by 0.1 day year-on-year to 1.1 days, with that of overnight visitors (2.2 days) and same-day visitors (0.2 day) remaining virtually unchanged. Analysed by country/place, visitors from Mainland China (12,213,900), the Republic of Korea (389,387), Hong Kong (3,071,796) and Taiwan (441,519) increased by 22.7%, 6.3%, 22.9% and 2.2% respectively. Visitors from the United States (89,226), Australia (42,380), Canada (35,137) and the United Kingdom (26,580) recorded year-on-year growth.