Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitor arrivals totalled 2,814,450 in December 2016, up by 6.8% year-on-year and 8.7% month-to-month. Overnight visitors rose by 16.5% to 1,550,406, accounting for 55.1% of the total, while same-day visitors decreased by 3.1% to 1,264,044. The average length of stay of visitors held stable year-on-year at 1.2 days; the average stay of overnight visitors and same-day visitors was 2.1 days and 0.2 day respectively.
Visitors from Mainland China increased by 7.8% year-on-year to 1,785,764 in December 2016, with those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme (850,204) rising by 15.4%. Mainland visitors were mainly from Guangdong Province (741,107), Hunan Province (83,108) and Fujian Province (67,362). Visitors from the Republic of Korea (70,740), Hong Kong (604,872) and Taiwan (94,686) went up by 28.9%, 2.3% and 11.2% respectively. Long-haul visitors from the United States (18,698) and Canada (7,278) increased year-on-year, while those from Australia (9,308) and the United Kingdom (4,631) decreased. Meanwhile, visitor arrivals by land (1,527,466), by sea (1,064,311) and by air (222,673) rose by 3.6%, 10.1% and 14.8% respectively year-on-year.
Visitor arrivals totalled 30,950,336 in 2016, up slightly by 0.8% year-on-year. Overnight visitors went up by 9.8% to 15,703,616, constituting 50.7% of the total visitors, while same-day visitors decreased by 7.1% to 15,246,720. The average length of stay of visitors rose by 0.1 day year-on-year to 1.2 days. Visitors from Mainland China edged up by 0.2% to 20,454,104, with 44.1% coming from Guangdong Province. Mainland visitors travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme increased by 0.6% year-on-year to 9,579,412. Visitors from the Republic of Korea (662,321) and Taiwan (1,074,525) grew by 19.5% and 8.8% respectively, while those from Hong Kong (6,419,839) went down by 1.8%. Moreover, long-haul visitors from the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom recorded year-on-year growth.
Analysed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by land increased by 3.2% year-on-year to 17,759,572; those arriving via the Border Gate (15,477,100) and the Checkpoint of Cotai (2,263,777) rose by 2.0% and 12.7% respectively. Visitor arrivals by sea decreased by 5.6% year-on-year to 10,777,447; those arriving via the Outer Harbour (6,536,508) dropped by 6.5% while those disembarking at the Provisional Ferry Terminal in Taipa (4,228,828) grew by 3.2%. Visitor arrivals by air increased by 15.5% year-on-year to 2,413,317, of which visitors arriving at the airport went up by 15.8% to 2,404,699.