Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals in package tours surged by 41.7% year-on-year to 661,320 in February 2012. Visitors from Mainland China (438,720) increased by 32.0%, with 155,036 coming from Guangdong Province; besides, those from Taiwan, China (68,233); Hong Kong (38,944); and the Republic of Korea (34,498) soared by 174.1%, 95.9% and 34.8% respectively. In the first two months of 2012, visitors in package tours totalled 1,296,313, up by 42.6% year-on-year to account for 28.2% of the total visitor arrivals, higher than the 21.4% from the same period of 2011. Outbound residents travelling in package tours increased by 5.7% year-on-year to 21,896 in February 2012. The most popular tour itineraries were Mainland China (79.0% of total), the Republic of Korea (5.0%), and Hong Kong (4.3%), with 12,502 travelling to Guangdong Province. In the first two months of 2012, residents travelling in package tours totalled 48,168, up by 23.6% year-on-year. Meanwhile, outbound residents travelling under own arrangements using services of travel agencies soared by 80.3% year-on-year to 75,928 in February 2012; the main destinations were Mainland China (56.2% of total); Hong Kong (19.5%); and Taiwan, China (13.6%). In the first two months of 2012, those travelling under such arrangements surged by 68.3% year-on-year to 143,311. Number of available guest rooms of the 95 hotels and guest-houses totalled 22,310 at the end of February 2012, an increase of 2,227 rooms (+11.1%) year-on-year, with those of the 5-star hotels accounting for 63.5% of the total. Hotels and guest-houses received 721,036 guests in February 2012, an increase of 20.1% year-on-year; the average length of stay decreased by 0.12 night to 1.4 nights. The average occupancy rate of hotels and guest-houses stood at 85.8%, up by 3.6 percentage points year-on-year; average occupancy rate of the hotels was 86.5%, with 4-star hotels reaching 89.3%. Number of guests increased by 14.4% year-on-year to 1,420,269 in the first two months of 2012; average occupancy rate of hotels and guest-houses stood at 82.3%, up by 1.6 percentage point year-on-year. In the first two months of 2012, visitor-guests accounted for 63.3% of the total number of overnight visitors, higher than the 60.1% from the same period of 2011.
