Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that attributable to the Easter holiday (that fell in March last year), visitor arrivals in April 2017 increased by 11.0% year-on-year to 2,742,799, up by 9.7% month-to-month. Overnight visitors (1,441,162) and same-day visitors (1,301,637) went up by 17.7% and 4.4% respectively year-on-year. The average length of stay of visitors rose by 0.1 day year-on-year to 1.2 days; overnight visitors and same-day visitors stayed an average of 2.1 days and 0.2 day respectively.
Visitors from Mainland China increased by 7.1% year-on-year to 1,768,603 in April, with those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme (823,373) rising by 18.5%. Mainland visitors came mainly from Guangdong Province (725,648) and Hunan Province (87,911). Visitors from the Republic of Korea (64,924) and Hong Kong (608,879) surged by 48.7% and 25.3% respectively while those from Taiwan (89,567) dropped by 2.8%. Meanwhile, visitors from the United States (17,756), Australia (10,328), Canada (6,973) and the United Kingdom (6,710) registered increase.
Analysed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by land increased by 7.6% year-on-year to 1,520,801, with those arriving through the Border Gate (1,320,374) rising by 6.1%. Visitor arrivals by sea rose by 17.2% year-on-year to 1,010,695; those disembarking at the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal (624,361) increased by 22.3% and those at the Taipa Provisional Ferry Terminal (386,334) went up by 9.7%. Visitor arrivals by air (211,303) increased by 8.5% year-on-year, with those arriving at the airport (209,951) rising by 7.9%.
In the first four months of 2017, visitor arrivals totalled 10,615,260, up by 6.9% year-on-year; overnight visitors (5,372,552) and same-day visitors (5,242,708) rose by 13.5% and 0.9% respectively. The average length of stay of visitors increased by 0.1 day year-on-year to 1.2 days; the average stay of overnight visitors (2.1 days) dropped by 0.1 day whereas that of same-day visitors remained unchanged at 0.2 day. Visitors from Mainland China (7,086,281), the Republic of Korea (294,529), Hong Kong (2,129,453) and Taiwan (345,187) went up by 7.5%, 35.4%, 4.1% and 0.6% respectively. Moreover, visitors from the United States (61,878), Australia (32,150), Canada (26,101) and the United Kingdom (19,638) also registered growth.