Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitors on package tours decreased by 20.0% year-on-year to 596,000 in September 2016. Package tour visitors from Mainland China (482,000) and Taiwan (33,000) dropped by 23.0% and 11.1% respectively year-on-year, while those from the Republic of Korea (25,000) recorded an increase of 44.9%. In the first three quarters of 2016, visitors on package tours totalled 5,420,000, down by 27.8% year-on-year. Outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 93,000 in September 2016, down by 16.1% year-on-year. Residents travelling on package tours decreased by 26.8% year-on-year to 32,000; residents travelling to Mainland China (23,000) dropped by 36.8% while those travelling to the Republic of Korea (3,300) soared by 220.8%. In the first three quarters of 2016, outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 910,000, down by 17.2% year-on-year. There were 107 hotels & guesthouses operating at the end of September 2016, up by 4 year-on-year and 2 month-to-month. Number of guest rooms increased by 20.7% year-on-year to 36,000, with 3-star hotel rooms (5,500) surging by 116.9%. With new hotels commencing operations, number of guests of hotels & guesthouses in September 2016 increased by 20.2% year-on-year to 1,025,000. Guests from Mainland China (644,000), the Republic of Korea (29,000), Hong Kong (152,000) and Taiwan (47,000) recorded double-digit growth, up by 20.9%, 75.5%, 12.5% and 40.6% respectively year-on-year. The average length of stay of guests held stable as in September 2015, at 1.4 nights. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses stood at 82.1% in September 2016, up by 3.7 percentage points year-on-year, and 4-star hotels took the lead at 86.5%, up notably by 10.5 percentage points. In the first three quarters of 2016, guests of hotels & guesthouses totalled 8,585,000, up by 12.9% year-on-year. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses stood at 81.2%, up by 1.2 percentage points; the average length of stay of guests was 1.4 nights, down by 0.1 night year-on-year. Visitor-guests accounted for 71.0% of the total overnight visitors, up by 3.0 percentage points year-on-year.
