Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated a total of 112 hotels & guesthouses were open for business in March (two other establishments were designated for medical observation for the whole month), and number of available guest rooms decreased by 13.2% year-on-year to 34,000. Data on hotels & guesthouses used for medical observation were excluded in the compilation of the following statistics. The average occupancy rate of guest rooms fell by 67.6 percentage points year-on-year to 23.2%, yet representing an increase of 8.0 percentage points compared to February (15.2%). The rate of 5-star hotels (16.9%) tumbled by 74.9 percentage points, while the rates of 2-star hotels (47.9%) and guesthouses (46.1%) dropped merely by 27.1 percentage points and 19.6 percentage points respectively.
A total of 240,000 guests checked into hotels & guesthouses in March, a plunge of 79.7% year-on-year. Number of guests coming from mainland China (170,000) and Hong Kong (44,000) dipped by 79.8% and 58.8% respectively, and those from other major countries/places showed cutbacks of more than 90%. Meanwhile, the average length of stay of guests extended by 0.5 night year-on-year to 1.9 nights.
In the first quarter of 2020, the average occupancy rate of guest rooms stood at 41.4%, representing a decline of 50.5 percentage points year-on-year. Guests of hotels & guesthouses fell by 57.6% to 1,477,000, while their average length of stay went up by 0.1 night to 1.6 nights.
There were only 100 package tour visitors in March and number of outbound residents using services of travel agencies plummeted by 99.0% to 1,400. In the first quarter of 2020, a total of 253,000 package tour visitors were recorded, a fall of 89.4% year-on-year; outbound residents using services of travel agencies tumbled by 80.8% to 87,000.