May visitor arrivals surge, driven by same-day mainland travelers

Visitor arrivals in May increased by 25.3% year-on-year, reaching 3.37 million, according to the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

The growth was attributed to a sharp 39.2% rise in same-day visitors, totaling nearly 2 million, while overnight visitors increased by 9.4% to 1.38 million.

Despite the increase, the average length of stay slightly declined by 0.1 day to 1.1 days, reflecting a higher proportion of short visits.

Mainland China remained the largest source market, with arrivals up 31.4% to 2.4 million.

Notably, travelers under the Individual Visit Scheme surged 46.5%, driven in part by the “one trip per week” and “multiple entry” policies.

Visitors from the nine Pearl River Delta cities in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) increased by 42.5%, fueled by a 66.1% jump in visitors from Zhuhai. Hong Kong and Taiwan also recorded gains of 6.7% and 14.3%, respectively.

International visitors totaled 232,000 in May, marking a 25.6% increase.

Southeast Asian markets showed mixed trends: the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand posted strong growth, while Malaysia and Singapore experienced declines.

By checkpoint, land arrivals dominated, accounting for 82.5% of all visitors (2.78 million), an increase of 32.4%.

Hengqin Port saw a surge of over 70%, rising from 279,000 in May 2024 to 488,000 in May 2025.

Sea arrivals (347,388) rose modestly by 4.5%, while air arrivals (243,787) declined by 5.9%.

In the first five months of 2025, total visitor arrivals reached 16.3 million, an increase of 15.2%.