April tourist arrivals increase 8 percent

Tourist arrivals totalled 2,960,879 in April 2018, up by 8 percent year-on-year and 8.3 percent month-to-month. According to information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), overnight visitors (1,541,771) and same-day visitors (1,419,108) grew by 7 percent and 9 percent respectively year-on-year. The average length of stay of visitors held steady year-on-year at 1.2 days, and that of overnight visitors as well as same-day visitors remained at 2.1 days and 0.2 day respectively.

Visitors from mainland China increased by 16.5 percent year-on-year to 2,060,662 in April, with those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme rising by 16.9 percent to 962,704. Mainland visitors came primarily from Guangdong Province (822,618) and Hunan Province (99,243). Visitors from Taiwan (94,545) grew by 5.6 percent, while those from South Korea (61,106) and Hong Kong (535,875) dropped by 5.9 percent and 12 percent respectively. Meanwhile, visitors from the United States (19,315) increased while those from Australia (9,999), Canada (6,751) and the United Kingdom (6,165) decreased.

Analysed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by land grew by 14.4 percent year-on-year to 1,740,479, with those arriving through the Border Gate (1,501,542) increasing by 13.7 percent. Visitor arrivals by sea decreased by 5.6 percent year-on-year to 954,443. Visitor arrivals by air totalled 265,957, representing a surge of 25.9 percent year- on-year.

In the first four months of 2018, visitor arrivals totalled 11,506,592, up by 8.4 percent year-on-year. Overnight visitors (5,872,209) and same-day visitors (5,634,383) increased by 9.3 percent and 7.5 percent respectively. The average length of stay of visitors held steady year-on-year at 1.2 days, with that of overnight visitors (2.2 days) rising by 0.1 day and that of same-day visitors (0.2 days) remaining unchanged. Analyzed by country/place, visitors from mainland China (8,092,036) and South Korea (301,185)  went  up  by  14.2 percent and  2.3 percent respectively.