Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitors on package tours surged by 41.4% year-on-year to 755,000 in January 2018, attributable to an increase of 49.8% in those from Mainland China (603,000); package tour visitors from the Republic of Korea (50,000) and Taiwan (47,000) grew by 13.5% and 41.0% respectively.
Outbound residents using services of travel agencies rose by 7.3% year-on-year to 122,000 in January 2018. Among them, residents travelling on package tours dropped by 4.7% to 44,000, with those going to Mainland China decreasing by 15.8% to 26,000 (58.7% of total).
There were 114 hotels & guesthouses operating at the end of January 2018, an increase of 7 year-on-year. Number of guest rooms grew by 2.6% year-on-year to 37,000, with 5-star hotel rooms rising by 2.2% to 22,000 (59.9% of total).
Number of guests of hotels & guesthouses in January 2018 rose by 12.9% year-on-year to 1,176,000. Guests coming from Mainland China (815,000) and the Republic of Korea (52,000) increased by 20.0% and 37.2% respectively year-on-year, whereas those from Hong Kong (102,000) and Taiwan (40,000) dropped by 19.5% and 1.1% respectively. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses stood at 90.3%, up by 8.7 percentage points year-on-year, with the rates of 5-star (93.5%) and 4-star hotels (91.9%) rising by 10.0 percentage points and 9.6 percentage points respectively. The average length of stay of guests held steady year-on-year at 1.4 nights. Visitor-guests accounted for 74.8% of the total overnight visitors, up by 3.1 percentage points year-on-year.