Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitors on package tours totalled 571,000 in June 2016, down by 20.7% year-on-year and up slightly by 0.7% month-to-month. Package tour visitors from Mainland China (442,000) and Taiwan (34,000) decreased by 24.1% and 27.0% respectively year-on-year, while those from the Republic of Korea (31,000) increased by 125.8%. In the first half year of 2016, visitors on package tours totalled 3,431,000, down by 31.2% year-on-year. Outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 94,000 in June 2016, down by 20.9% year-on-year. Residents travelling on package tours decreased by 21.7% year-on-year to 37,000, and the main destinations were Mainland China (64.9% of total), the Republic of Korea (11.1%) and Taiwan (7.3%); those travelling to the Republic of Korea soared by 611.4% due to the low base of comparison in June 2015 resulted from the outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. In the first half year of 2016, outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 597,000, down by 17.7% year-on-year. There were 105 hotels & guesthouses operating at the end of June 2016, an increase of 3 year-on-year. Number of guest rooms totalled 32,000, up by 2,500 (+8.4%) year-on-year; those of 5-star hotels (21,000) and 4-star hotels (7,700) together accounted for 87.9% the total. A total of 935,000 guests checked into hotels & guesthouses in June 2016, up by 16.5% year-on-year. Guests from Mainland China (583,000), Hong Kong (145,000) and Taiwan (44,000) registered double-digit growth, at 17.2%, 13.0% and 39.2% respectively. The average length of stay of guests held stable at 1.4 nights as in June 2015. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses rose notably by 6.6 percentage points year-on-year to 82.0%, with 4-star hotels leading at 85.7%, up significantly by 12.4 percentage points year-on-year. In the first half year of 2016, guests of hotels & guesthouses totalled 5,443,000, up by 12.8% year-on-year. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses stood at 78.6% and the average length of stay of guests was 1.4 nights, down by 0.1 percentage point and 0.1 night respectively. Visitor-guests accounted for 71.7% of the total overnight visitors, up by 3.3 percentage points year-on-year.
