Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitors on package tours increased by 21.9% month-to-month to 819,000 in July 2017 benefiting from the summer holidays, with a year-on-year increase of 22.8%. Package tour visitors from Mainland China (669,000), the Republic of Korea (38,000) and Taiwan (42,000) rose by 25.6%, 24.8% and 4.8% respectively year-on-year. In the first seven months of 2017, visitors on package tours totalled 4,596,000, up by 12.4% year-on-year.
Outbound residents using services of travel agencies rose by 21.0% year-on-year to 130,000. Residents travelling on package tours surged by 35.8% to 55,000, with those leaving for Mainland China rising notably by 46.6% to 39,000. In the first seven months of 2017, outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 795,000, up by 12.5% year-on-year.
There were 107 hotels & guesthouses operating at the end of July 2017. Number of guest rooms increased by 15.3% year-on-year to 37,000, with that of 5-star hotels rising by 9.4% to 22,000, accounting for 60.3%.
Number of guests of hotels & guesthouses in July 2017 increased by 15.6% year-on-year to 1,212,000. Guests coming from Mainland China (792,000), the Republic of Korea (49,000) and Taiwan (49,000) grew by 21.6%, 96.0% and 13.2% respectively year-on-year, whereas those from Hong Kong (165,000) dropped by 10.0%. The average length of stay of guests held stable as in July 2016, at 1.4 nights. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses reached 90.4%, up by 2.9 percentage points year-on-year, with that of 4-star hotels rising by 2.2 percentage points to 92.8%. Moreover, the occupancy rates of 3-star (91.8%) and 5-star hotels (90.2%) also went up by 12.5 percentage points and 1.7 percentage points respectively.
In the first seven months of 2017, guests of hotels & guesthouses totalled 7,557,000, up by 15.8% year-on-year. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses stood at 85.1%, up by 4.6 percentage points. The average length of stay of guests held stable at 1.4 nights. Visitor-guests accounted for 73.3% of the total overnight visitors, up by 1.8 percentage points year-on-year.