Visitor arrivals for September 2015

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitor arrivals totalled 2,415,499 in September 2015, up marginally by 0.4% year-on-year. Same-day visitors held stable as the same month of 2014, at 1,242,519 (51.4% of total); overnight visitors rose slightly by 0.8% to 1,172,980. The average length of stay of visitors increased by 0.2 day year-on-year to 1.2 days; the average stay of same-day visitors (0.2 day) remained unchanged while that of overnight visitors (2.2 days) rose by 0.3 day. Visitors from Mainland China decreased by 1.4% year-on-year to 1,572,868, with those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme rising slightly by 0.6% to 657,621. Visitors from Mainland China came primarily from Guangdong Province (671,672), Fujian Province (73,622) and Hunan Province (64,569). Visitors from Hong Kong (543,835), Taiwan (84,453) and Japan (31,864) increased by 6.8%, 5.6% and 16.6% year-on-year respectively, while those from the Republic of Korea (36,223) declined by 22.6%. Long-haul visitors from the United Kingdom (5,116) and Canada (5,108) registered year-on-year increase, while visitors from the United States (13,721) and Australia (8,038) marked decrease. Analyzed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by land increased by 2.3% year-on-year to 1,354,808; visitors arriving via the Border Gate (1,213,656) edged up by 0.2%, while those via the Checkpoint of Cotai (139,068) rose remarkably by 26.5%. Visitor arrivals by sea totalled 902,951, a year-on-year decrease of 1.7%, with those arriving via the Outer Habour (541,999) dropping by 3.5%, but those via the Provisional Ferry Terminal in Taipa (340,396) rising by 2.6%. Moreover, visitor arrivals by air declined by 2.4% year-on-year to 157,740, of which those entering via the airport decreased by 2.2% to 156,618, accounting for 99.3% of the total. In the first nine months of 2015, visitor arrivals totalled 22,853,973, down by 2.9% year-on-year; same-day visitors (12,344,317) and overnight visitors (10,509,656) decreased by 1.7% and 4.3% respectively. Visitors from Mainland China (15,209,840) and the Republic of Korea (410,546) decreased by 3.8% and 2.4% respectively, while those from Hong Kong (4,925,706) and Taiwan (734,771) rose by 1.3% and 1.1%. Moreover, long-haul visitors from the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom recorded year-on-year decrease.