Slight increase y-o-y in September tourists

Visitor arrivals totaled to 2,561,274 in September, up by 3 percent year-on-year but down by 24.7 percent month-to-month, according to information released by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC). Meanwhile, overnight visitors (1,408,326) and same-day visitors (1,152,948) grew by 1.9 percent and 4.4 percent respectively year-on-year. The average length of stay of visitors increased by 0.1 days year-on- year to 1.4 days, with that of overnight visitors rising by 0.2 days to 2.4 days. The average length of same-day visitors stayed at 0.2 days.

Visitors from mainland China increased by 5.7 percent year-on-year to 1,820,269 in September, while those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme rose by 10.3 percent to 788,426. Mainland visitors came primarily from Guangdong Province (719,062) and Hunan Province (91,921). Visitors from South Korea (58,246), Hong Kong (444,005) and Taiwan (82,999) dropped by 4.4 percent, 1.6 percent and 3.7 percent respectively. Meanwhile, visitors from the United States (13,448) and the United Kingdom (4,108) registered year-on-year increases, whereas those from Australia (6,614) and Canada (4,326) decreased.

According to DSEC, in the first nine months of 2018, visitor arrivals totaled to 25,813,264, up by 8.3 percent year-on-year; overnight visitors (13,612,547) and same-day visitors (12,200,717) grew by 7.7 percent and 9 percent respectively. The average length of stay of visitors increased by 0.1 days year-on-year to 1.3 days, with that of overnight visitors (2.2 days) rising by 0.1 days and that of same-day visitors (0.2 days) remaining unchanged. Analyzed by country or place, visitors from mainland China (18,221,155) and Taiwan (803,987) rose by 13.3 percent and 0.2 percent respectively year-on-year, while those from South Korea (607,701) and Hong Kong (4,545,754) dropped by 5.7 percent and 2.4 percent respectively.