Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitors on package tours increased by 15.2% year-on-year to 779,000 in June 2019. Package tour visitors from mainland China (602,000), the Republic of Korea (53,000) and Taiwan (59,000) rose by 16.9%, 14.4% and 1.3% respectively, whereas those from Hong Kong (14,000) surged by 49.8%. In the first half year of 2019, there were 4,907,000 package tour visitors, a growth of 14.9% year-on-year.
Outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 142,000 in June, up by 16.1% year-on-year. Residents travelling under own arrangements increased by 17.3% to 100,000; those visiting mainland China (36,000) grew by 3.0% while those going to Hong Kong (30,000) soared by 53.3%. Meanwhile, residents travelling on package tours rose by 13.3% to 41,000 on account of a 14.1% increase in those visiting mainland China (32,000). In the first half year of 2019, outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 828,000, up by 8.3% year-on-year; residents travelling under own arrangements (560,000) grew by 13.5% whereas those travelling on package tours (268,000) decreased by 1.1%.
There were 119 hotels & guesthouses operating at the end of June 2019, an increase of 3 year-on-year. Number of available guest rooms edged up by 0.1% year-on-year to 39,000, with 5-star hotel rooms remaining steady at 25,000 (63.3% of total).
A total of 1,119,000 guests checked into hotels & guesthouses in June 2019, down by 3.4% year-on-year. Guests coming from mainland China (752,000), Hong Kong (128,000) and Taiwan (38,000) dropped by 1.7%, 6.7% and 12.2% respectively, whereas those from the Republic of Korea (42,000) grew by 7.2%. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses decreased by 0.3 percentage points year-on-year to 89.5%; the rates of 5-star hotels (90.7%) and 4-star hotels (89.7%) fell by 0.2 percentage points and 1.6 percentage points respectively. The average length of stay of guests shortened by 0.1 night year-on-year to 1.4 nights.
In the first half year of 2019, guests of hotels & guesthouses totalled 6,939,000, up by 1.0% year-on-year. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses rose by 1.1 percentage points to 91.1%. The average length of stay of guests held steady at 1.5 nights. Visitor-guests accounted for 70.0% of the total overnight visitors, down by 3.9 percentage points year-on-year.