Group visitors down almost one-quarter in 2016

The number of visitors on package tours decreased by 2.6 percent year-on-year to 706,000 in December 2016, a slower decline compared with November. According to information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), the number of package tour visitors from mainland China (554,000) dropped by 4.1 percent year-on-year, while those from the Republic of Korea (36,000) and Taiwan (39,000) increased by 17.8 percent and 11 percent respectively.

For the whole year of 2016, visitors on package tours totaled 7,544,000, down by 23.4 percent year-on-year. Those coming from mainland China (5,968,000) and Taiwan (427,000) decreased by 26 percent and 21.3 percent respectively, while those from the Republic of Korea (371,000) increased by 14 percent.

Outbound residents using the services of travel agencies totaled 127,000 in December 2016, down by 4 percent year-on-year. The number of residents travelling on package tours decreased slightly by 0.7 percent year-on-year to 57,000, of which those visiting mainland China and the Republic of Korea comprised 65.5 percent and 12.9 percent respectively. For the whole of 2016, outbound residents using the services of travel agencies dropped by 14.3 percent year-on-year to 1,256,000. Residents travelling on package tours (501,000) decreased by 17.9 percent, with those going to mainland China (342,000) falling by 27.9 percent while those to the Republic of Korea (51,000) surged by 135.5 percent.

There were 107 hotels and guesthouses operating at the end of December 2016, up by one year-on-year. The number of guest rooms increased by 4,000 to 36,000, with that of three- star hotels rising the most, by 3,000. Guest rooms of five-star (22,000) and four-star (7,700) hotels accounted for 60.1 percent and 21.2 percent of the total respectively.

For the whole of 2016, guests of hotels and guesthouses totaled around 12 million, up by 13.6 percent year-on-year. Guests from mainland China (7,607,000), the Republic of Korea (304,000), Hong Kong (1,782,000) and Taiwan (477,000) grew by 12.8 percent, 34.3 percent, 17.8 percent and 24.7 percent respectively. The average occupancy rate of hotels and guesthouses stood at 83.3 percent in 2016, up by 1.8 percentage points year-on-year. Four-star hotels had the highest rate at 86.3 percent.

The average length of stay of guests was 1.4 nights, down by 0.1 nights year- on-year. Visitor-guests accounted for 72 percent of total overnight visitors, up by 2.6 percentage points year-on-year.