Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitors on package tours totalled 682,000 in June 2018, up by 3.1% year-on-year and yet down by 4.0% month-to-month. Package tour visitors from Mainland China (515,000) edged down by 0.1%, while those from the Republic of Korea (45,000) and Taiwan (59,000) surged by 16.5% and 67.6% respectively. In the first half year of 2018, visitors on package tours totalled 4,274,000, up by 13.8% year-on-year.
Outbound residents using services of travel agencies increased by 14.1% year-on-year to 123,000. Number of residents travelling on package tours decreased by 15.6% to 37,000, with those going to Mainland China dropping by 2.7% to 28,000 (75.4% of total). In the first half year of 2018, outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 765,000, up by 15.0% year-on-year.
There were 116 hotels & guesthouses operating at the end of June 2018, an increase of 9 year-on-year. Number of guest rooms grew by 7.8% year-on-year to 39,000, of which 5-star hotel rooms rose by 10.8% to 25,000, accounting for 62.2% of the total.
Number of guests of hotels & guesthouses in June 2018 rose by 6.0% year-on-year to 1,157,000. Guests coming from Mainland China (764,000) and Taiwan (44,000) increased by 11.0% and 4.4% respectively, while those from the Republic of Korea (39,000) and Hong Kong (138,000) dropped by 5.2% and 8.2%. The average length of stay of guests went up by 0.1 night year-on-year to 1.5 nights. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses stood at 88.0%, up by 2.6 percentage points year-on-year; the rates of 4-star and 5-star hotels were 91.3% and 90.9% respectively, up by 3.2 percentage points and 4.9 percentage points.
In the first half year of 2018, guests of hotels & guesthouses totalled 6,869,000, up by 7.8% year-on-year. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses rose by 4.0 percentage points to 88.6%. The average length of stay of guests increased by 0.1 night year-on-year to 1.5 nights. Visitor-guests accounted for 73.9% of the total overnight visitors, down slightly by 0.2 percentage points year-on-year.