Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitor arrivals totalled 2,570,428 in May 2017, up by 3.7% year-on-year and down by 6.3% month-to-month. Overnight visitors (1,376,336) went up by 14.2% year-on-year while same-day visitors (1,194,092) decreased by 6.1%. The average length of stay of visitors rose by 0.1 day year-on-year to 1.3 days; overnight visitors and same-day visitors stayed an average of 2.2 days and 0.2 day respectively, the same as in May last year.
Visitors from Mainland China increased by 4.4% year-on-year to 1,702,578 in May, with those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme (789,488) rising by 9.9%. Mainland visitors came mainly from Guangdong Province (708,960), Hunan Province (77,676) and Fujian Province (67,590). Visitors from the Republic of Korea (72,205) surged by 50.1% and those from Taiwan (89,118) increased by 9.5%; meanwhile, visitors from Hong Kong (494,446) decreased by 1.3%. Moreover, visitors from Canada (6,653) and the United Kingdom (5,011) increased year-on-year while those from the United States (15,461) and Australia (6,873) decreased.
Analysed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by land edged down by 0.3% year-on-year to 1,431,672, with those arriving through the Border Gate (1,247,823) decreasing by 1.5%. Visitor arrivals by sea rose by 8.3% year-on-year to 922,353; those disembarking at the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal (557,731) and the Taipa Provisional Ferry Terminal (364,622) went up by 9.0% and 7.2% respectively. Visitor arrivals by air increased by 14.5% year-on-year to 216,403, with those arriving at the airport (215,279) rising by 14.3%.
In the first five months of 2017, visitor arrivals totalled 13,185,688, up by 6.3% year-on-year; overnight visitors (6,748,888) rose by 13.7% while same-day visitors (6,436,800) dropped slightly by 0.5%. The average length of stay of visitors held stable at 1.2 days; the average stay of overnight visitors (2.1 days) dropped by 0.1 day whereas that of same-day visitors (0.2 day) remained unchanged. Visitors from Mainland China (8,788,859), the Republic of Korea (366,734), Hong Kong (2,623,899) and Taiwan (434,305) went up by 6.9%, 38.0%, 3.0% and 2.3% respectively year-on-year. Visitors from the United States (77,339), Canada (32,754) and the United Kingdom (24,649) registered year-on-year growth while those from Australia (39,023) decreased.