Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitor arrivals decreased slightly by 0.2% year-on-year to 2,161,566 in September 2012; same-day visitors (1,082,468) accounted for 50.1% of the total. The average length of stay of visitors stood at 1.0 day, up by 0.1 day year-on-year, with overnight and same-day visitors staying 1.9 days and 0.2 day respectively. Analysed by place of residence, visitors from Mainland China increased modestly by 0.8% year-on-year to 1,255,962, coming mostly from Guangdong Province (570,571), Fujian Province (59,134) and Zhejiang Province (45,393); Mainland visitors travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme rose by 11.4% to 500,395. Visitor arrivals from Hong Kong (582,091) held stable year-on-year and those from the Republic of Korea (32,585) increased by 22.1%; however, visitors from Taiwan, China (97,163); and Japan (35,296) decreased by 3.8% and 0.9% respectively. Long-haul visitors from the Americas (22,642), Europe (19,821) and Oceania (11,439) increased by 0.3%, 6.2% and 8.2% respectively. Visitor arrivals totalled 7,286,971 in the third quarter of 2012, down by 1.7% year-on-year. In the first nine months of 2012, visitor arrivals totalled 20,864,685 and the rate of increase narrowed to 1.0% year-on-year. Visitors from Mainland China (12,458,605), the Republic of Korea (331,435) and Japan (319,067) increased by 6.0%, 9.6% and 12.7% respectively, while those from Hong Kong (5,373,074) and Taiwan, China (817,080) decreased by 7.0% and 13.4%.
