Package tour visitors from S. Korea up 55pct

The number of visitors on package tours totaled 559,000 in February 2017, according to information from the Statistics and Census Service published yesterday, down by 1.5 percent year-on-year and up by 4.7 percent month-to-month.

Package tour visitors from mainland China (414,000) and Taiwan (36,000) dropped by 5.4 percent and 9.3 percent respectively year-on-year, while those from South Korea (49,000) surged by 54.4 percent.

For the same month, outbound residents using travel agency services increased by 9.3 percent year-on-year to 114,000. Residents on package tours increased by 12.1 percent to 48,000, with those going to mainland China (34,000) rising by 13.7 percent and those to South Korea soaring 76.9 percent.

The total number of hotels and guesthouses operating at the end of February 2017 increased to 108. The number of guest rooms totaled 36,000, up by 13.2 percent year-on-year, with 5-star hotel rooms rising by 7 percent to 22,000, comprising about 60 percent of the total.

A total of 949,000 guests stayed in hotels and guesthouses in February 2017, up by 8.1 percent year-on-year. Guests from mainland China (625,000), South Korea (36,000) and Taiwan (40,000) also recorded increases, while guests from Hong Kong (121,000) decreased by 7.7 percent.

In the first two months of 2017, visitors on package tours totaled 1,092,000, down by four percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, outbound residents using the services of travel agencies totaled 227,000, up by 10.4 percent year-on-year.

In this period, the number of guests at hotels and guesthouses totaled 1,991,000, up by 11.9 percent year-on-year.