Mainland arrivals on package tours decrease

Visitors on package tours dropped 4.6 percent year-on-year to 766,000 in January 2019, owing to an 8.4 percent decrease in the number of mainland visitors (591,000), according to data released by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

On the other hand, package tour visitors from Korea (66,000), Hong Kong (16,000) and Taiwan (56,000) increased by 31.7 percent, 17.5 percent and 14.2 percent respectively.

Outbound residents using the services of travel agencies rose by 7.5 percent year-on-year to 130,000 in January 2019.

Among them, residents travelling under their own arrangements expanded by 22.5 percent to 93,000, with those visiting mainland China totaling 43,000 (45.8 percent of total), a surge of 37.2 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, residents travelling on package tours decreased by 18 percent to 36,000.

Guests coming from mainland China (896,000) and South Korea (54,000) increased by 9.5 percent and 4.1 percent respectively year-on- year, while those from Hong Kong (96,000) and Taiwan (38,000) dropped by 5.8 percent and 5.6 percent respectively. LV