Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitor arrivals in package tours increased by 23.7% year-on-year to 809,591 in October 2012. Visitors from Mainland China (589,018) increased by 24.3%, with 244,185 coming from Guangdong Province; besides, those from Taiwan, China (73,901) and the Republic of Korea (38,958) increased by 66.1% and 61.2% respectively. On the contrary, visitors from Hong Kong (31,960) and Japan (18,267) decreased by 1.4% and 2.4% respectively. In the first ten months of 2012, visitors in package tours (7,381,059) increased by 24.4% year-on-year to account for 31.8% of the total visitor arrivals. Outbound residents in package tours soared by 98.7% year-on-year to 36,632 in October 2012. The most popular tour itineraries were Mainland China (76.7% of total); the Republic of Korea (5.9%); and Taiwan, China (5.3%), with 18,885 travelling to Guangdong Province. In the first ten months of 2012, residents travelling in package tours totalled 336,785, up by 64.0% year-on-year. Meanwhile, outbound residents travelling under own arrangements using services of travel agencies increased by 23.3% year-on-year to 74,424 in October 2012. The main destinations were Mainland China (49.6% of total); Hong Kong (24.1%); and Taiwan, China (14.1%). In the first ten months of 2012, residents travelling under such arrangements increased by 32.6% year-on-year to 706,461. There were 100 hotels and guesthouses operating at the end of October 2012, providing 26,050 rooms, an increase of 3,750 (+16.8%) year-on-year, of which guest rooms of 5-star hotels accounted for 63.8%. In October 2012, the hotels and guesthouses received 787,825 guests, up by 10.3% year-on-year; the average length of stay decreased by 0.17 night to 1.4 nights. Occupancy rate of hotels and guesthouses stood at 80.9%, down by 0.8 percentage point; occupancy rate of the hotels was 81.4%, with 5-star hotels leading at 82.7%. Number of guests increased by 11.3% year-on-year to 7,803,299 in the first ten months of 2012; occupancy rate of hotels and guesthouses stood at 82.3%, down by 0.7 percentage point year-on-year. From January to October 2012, visitor-guests accounted for 64.9% of the total number of overnight visitors, higher than the 61.6% in the same period of 2011.
