Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitors on package tours totalled 725,000 in December 2015, down by 31.6% year-on-year and 5.4% month-to-month. Package tour visitors from Mainland China decreased by 34.4%, and those from the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan dropped by 14.9%, 12.0% and 36.7% respectively; meanwhile, those from India increased by 27.7%. For the whole year of 2015, package tour visitors decreased by 12.2% year-on-year to 9,777,000, coming primarily from Mainland China (7,971,000), the Republic of Korea (327,000), Hong Kong (256,000) and Taiwan (545,000), down by 10.5%, 18.4%, 21.0% and 26.5% respectively. Outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 135,000 in December 2015, down by 2.8% year-on-year; those travelling on package tours rose by 5.7% to 57,000, and the main destination was Mainland China (73.2% of total). For the whole year of 2015, outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 1,510,000, down by 1.7% year-on-year. Residents travelling on package tours (610,000) increased by 4.1%; those travelling to Mainland China (474,000) grew by 9.0%, and those to Japan (16,000) and Thailand (13,000) rose notably by 52.0% and 69.0%; however, those to the Republic of Korea (22,000), Hong Kong (22,000) and Taiwan (37,000) dropped by 37.0%, 21.1% and 17.7% respectively. There were 106 hotels and guesthouses operating at the end of December 2015, up by 8 year-on-year (five 5-star hotels and three 4-star hotels). Number of guest rooms increased by 4,300 (+15.6%) year-on-year to 32,000, of which 5-star (21,000) and 4-star (7,700) hotel rooms rose by 2,200 and 2,100 respectively. Number of guests checking into hotels and guesthouses totalled 1,053,000 in December 2015, up by 19.0% year-on-year. Guests from Mainland China increased by 10.4%, while those from Hong Kong and Taiwan rose substantially by 55.9% and 47.0% respectively. The average length of stay of guests held stable as December 2014, at 1.4 nights. The average occupancy rate of hotels and guesthouses was 82.8%, down by 2.3 percentage points year-on-year. For the whole year of 2015, guests of hotels and guesthouses decreased by 2.1% year-on-year to 10,489,000, mainly due to a 3.7% drop in guests from Mainland China (6,683,000); those from the Republic of Korea (226,000), Hong Kong (1,489,000) and Taiwan (379,000) increased by 4.1%, 14.3% and 5.6% respectively. The average occupancy rate dropped by 6.0 percentage points year-on-year to 80.5%, with 5-star hotels leading at 82.2%, down by 5.3 percentage points. The average length of stay of guests increased by 0.1 night to 1.5 nights. Visitor-guests accounted for 68.9% of the total overnight visitors, up by 0.1 percentage point year-on-year.
