Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitors on package tours increased by 14.5% year-on-year to 870,000 in July 2019. Package tour visitors from mainland China (714,000), Hong Kong (12,000) and Taiwan (63,000) rose by 19.0%, 19.1% and 2.7% respectively, while those from the Republic of Korea (45,000) dropped by 9.0%. In the first seven months of 2019, there were 5,785,000 package tour visitors, a growth of 15.1% year-on-year.
Outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 135,000 in July, up by 2.9% year-on-year. Residents travelling under own arrangements edged down by 0.6% to 88,000; those visiting Hong Kong (14,000) and Taiwan (14,000) decreased by 18.2% and 6.3% respectively, whereas those going to mainland China (38,000) inched up by 0.9%. Meanwhile, residents travelling on package tours grew by 10.5% to 46,000 on account of a 13.9% increase in those visiting mainland China (36,000). In the first seven months of 2019, outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 964,000, up by 7.7% year-on-year.
There were 119 hotels & guesthouses operating at the end of July 2019, an increase of 3 year-on-year. Number of available guest rooms inched down by 0.2% year-on-year to 39,000, with rooms of 4-star hotels (7,400) decreasing by 4.8% whereas those of 5-star hotels (25,000) rising slightly by 0.2%.
A total of 1,252,000 guests checked into hotels & guesthouses in July 2019, up by 3.5% year-on-year. Guests coming from mainland China (889,000) and the Republic of Korea (44,000) grew by 6.9% and 18.2% respectively, while those from Hong Kong (148,000) and Taiwan (41,000) dropped by 0.9% and 13.6%. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses increased by 1.3 percentage points year-on-year to 93.2%; the rates of 5-star hotels (94.0%) and 4-star hotels (93.9%) rose by 1.3 percentage points and 1.2 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 seven months of 2019, guests of hotels & guesthouses totalled 8,163,000, up by 1.8% year-on-year. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses rose by 1.1 percentage points to 91.4%. The average length of stay of guests held steady at 1.5 nights. Visitor-guests accounted for 69.7% of the total overnight visitors, down by 3.0 percentage points year-on-year.