Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitors on package tours totalled 723,000 in September 2015, down by 24.9% year-on-year. Package tour visitors from Mainland China (596,000), Taiwan (37,000), Hong Kong (18,000) and the Republic of Korea (17,000) dropped by 23.6%, 41.7%, 31.1% and 52.2% respectively year-on-year, while those from Japan (17,000) rose by 28.4%. Visitors arriving on package tours totalled 679,000, down by 14.7% year-on-year; meanwhile, visitors joining local tours decreased by 73.3% to 45,000. In the first three quarters of 2015, visitors on package tours totalled 7,392,000, down by 8.0% year-on-year; those arriving on package tours decreased by 5.1% to 6,277,000. Outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 112,000 in September 2015, down by 8.6% year-on-year; those travelling on package tours decreased by 3.4% to 43,000, and the main destinations were Mainland China (80.2% of total), Taiwan (5.2%) and Hong Kong (3.8%). In the first three quarters of 2015, outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 1,117,000, down by 1.4% year-on-year. There were 103 hotels and guesthouses operating at the end of September 2015, providing 30,000 guest rooms, up by 7.4% year-on-year. Number of guest rooms in 5-star hotels totalled 20,000, accounting for 66.3% of the total supply. Number of guests checking into hotels and guesthouses totalled 853,000, up slightly by 0.1% year-on-year. Guests from Mainland China (533,000) decreased by 2.6%, while those from Hong Kong (135,000) increased by 33.1%. The average length of stay of guests held stable as September 2014, at 1.4 nights. The average occupancy rate of hotels and guesthouses was 78.4%, down by 6.2 percentage points year-on-year. Five-star hotels had the highest occupancy rate of 80.7%, representing a year-on-year decrease of 5.2 percentage points as the increase in the supply of guest rooms (+8.2%) outpaced the growth in guests (+4.3%). In the first three quarters of 2015, guests of hotels and guesthouses totalled 7,604,000 and the average occupancy rate stood at 80.0%, down by 5.7% and 6.3 percentage points respectively year-on-year. Visitor-guests accounted for 68.0% of the total overnight visitors, down by 0.8 percentage points.
