50% hotel occupancy rate in 2021

The average occupancy rate of hotel rooms was 50.0% for the whole year of 2021, up by 21.4 percentage points year-on-year, data from the Statistics and Census Service shows.

The number of guests of hotels and guesthouses surged by 71.0% year-on-year to 6,624,000.  Mainland guests leapt by 94.9% to 5,380,000 (81.2% of the total), whereas local guests rose by 41.7% to 892,000 (13.5% of the total). 

In 2021, the number of local tour visitors soared by 112.2% year-on-year to 40,000. Outbound residents using the services of travel agencies increased by 19.8% year-on-year to 150,000, and 98.0% of them visited mainland China.

Recent data shows that annual visitor arrivals rose by 30.7% year-on-year to 7,705,943 in 2021, a figure that remains far below pre-pandemic numbers, yet within the expectations of the tourism bureau. 

Although the numbers represent a decline of over 80% compared to 2019, last year’s arrivals grew from around 5.9 million in 2020 – which was a devastating year for the tourism industry.

Visitors travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) (2,449,128) grew by 31.3%, while visitors from the nine Pearl River Delta cities in the Greater Bay Area (4,117,836) surged by 59.9%.

In December, the average occupancy rate of hotel rooms was 54.7%, representing month-on-month growth of 8.2 percentage points and a year-on-year rise of 1.6 percentage points, 

The rate for 3-star hotels stood at 66.2%, while that of both 4-star and 5-star hotels exceeded 50%.

The number of guests of hotels and guesthouses in December rose by 12.1% year-on-year to 650,000, with mainland guests (531,000) and local guests (85,000) increasing by 7.8% and 39.6%, respectively. 

Meanwhile, the city’s number of available hotel rooms increased by 10.3% to 39,000.