Visitor arrivals for February 2016

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that attributable to the Lunar New Year holiday, visitor arrivals rebounded by 8.1% month-to-month to 2,644,289 in February 2016, but still represented a year-on-year decrease of 1.2%. Same-day visitors dropped by 7.6% year-on-year to 1,454,944, whereas overnight visitors rose by 7.9% to 1,189,345. The average length of stay of visitors increased by 0.2 day year-on-year to 1.1 days; the average stay of same-day visitors (0.2 day) held stable while that of overnight visitors (2.1 days) rose by 0.3 day. Visitors from Mainland China totalled 1,799,522 in February 2016, down by 5.2% year-on-year; those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme dropped by 11.5% to 1,009,546. Mainland visitors came mainly from Guangdong Province (897,096), Zhejiang Province (57,817) and Shanghai (53,261). Visitors from the Republic of Korea (63,013), Hong Kong (548,080) and Taiwan (86,477) increased by 12.0%, 4.8% and 16.6% respectively. Long-haul visitors from the United States (12,763), Canada (5,932) and Australia (5,727) registered increase. Analyzed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by land increased by 1.3% year-on-year to 1,605,907; those arriving via the Border Gate edged up by 0.4% to 1,357,065 and those via the Checkpoint of Cotai rose by 7.0% to 247,512. Visitor arrivals by sea dropped by 11.2% year-on-year to 813,214, and those arriving via the Outer Harbour (532,678) and the Provisional Ferry Terminal in Taipa (280,536) recorded decrease. Visitor arrivals by air surged by 28.7% year-on-year to 225,168, with those entering via the airport rising by 28.9% to 224,417. In the first two months of 2016, visitor arrivals totalled 5,090,165, down by 1.0% year-on-year; same-day visitors dropped by 6.7% to 2,754,918 while overnight visitors rose by 6.6% to 2,335,247. Visitors from Mainland China (3,458,156) decreased by 3.1% year-on-year, whereas those from the Republic of Korea (132,246) and Taiwan (172,416) increased by 5.8% and 14.1% respectively. Hong Kong visitors (996,273) remained similar to the same period of 2015. Moreover, long-haul visitors from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom increased year-on-year, while those from Australia decreased.