Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals in package tours surged by 51.1% year-on-year to 754,163 in March 2012. Visitors from Mainland China (531,096) increased by 45.8%, with 174,477 coming from Guangdong Province; besides, those from Taiwan, China (70,556); Hong Kong (35,765); the Republic of Korea (28,449); and Japan (23,402) soared by 163.7%, 87.0%, 42.9% and 20.3% year-on-year respectively. In the first quarter of 2012, visitors in package tours totalled 2,050,476, up by 45.6% year-on-year to account for 29.5% of the total visitor arrivals, higher than the 21.9% from the same period of 2011. Outbound residents travelling in package tours increased markedly by 58.4% year-on-year to 25,410 in March 2012. The most popular tour itineraries were Mainland China (80.1% of total); Taiwan, China (4.6%); and Hong Kong (3.9%), with 14,487 travelling to Guangdong Province. In the first quarter of 2012, residents travelling in package tours totalled 73,578, up by 33.8% year-on-year. Meanwhile, outbound residents travelling under own arrangements using services of travel agencies increased significantly by 68.2% year-on-year to 69,595 in March 2012; the main destinations were Mainland China (53.2% of total); Hong Kong (19.5%); and Taiwan, China (15.3%). In the first quarter of 2012, those travelling under such arrangements surged by 68.3% year-on-year to 212,906. Number of available guest rooms of the 95 hotels and guest-houses totalled 22,272 at the end of March 2012, an increase of 2,143 rooms (+10.6%) year-on-year, with those of the 5-star hotels accounting for 63.7% of the total. Hotels and guest-houses received 760,416 guests in March 2012, an increase of 12.2% year-on-year; the average length of stay decreased by 0.08 night to 1.4 nights. The average occupancy rate of hotels and guest-houses stood at 85.0%, up by 3.6 percentage points year-on-year; average occupancy rate of the hotels was 85.6%, with 4-star hotels reaching 89.5%. Number of guests increased by 13.6% year-on-year to 2,180,685 in the first quarter of 2012; average occupancy rate of hotels and guest-houses stood at 83.2%, up by 2.2 percentage points year-on-year. In the first quarter of 2012, visitor-guests accounted for 64.3% of the total number of overnight visitors, higher than the 61.5% from the same period of 2011.
