Tourism | Feb visitor arrivals down 5.6 percent

Visitor arrivals in February 2017 totaled just over 2,495,000, , down by 5.6 percent year-on-year and 13.2 percent month-to-month, according to information released by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) yesterday.

According to a statement issued by DSEC, visitors’ average length of stay was 1.2 days, up by 0.1 days year-on-year, with the average stay of overnight visitors rising marginally to 2.2 days.

Analyzed by place of origin, visitors from mainland China decreased by 7.5 percent year-on-year to about 1,665,000 in February, with the majority coming from Guangdong Province (780,000) followed by Hunan Province (55,000).

Visitors from Hong Kong (501,000) dropped by 8.6 percent when compared to the same month in 2016, while those from South Korea (82,000) and Taiwan (87,000) increased by 31.3 percent and 0.6 percent respectively.

Further abroad, visitors from Australia (5,800) increased year-on-year, while those from the U.S. (12,500), Canada (5,500) and the U.K. (4,000) decreased.

Analyzed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by land dropped by 9 percent year-on-year to around 1,460,000, with those arriving via the Border Gate (1,246,000) decreasing by 8.2 percent.

Visitor arrivals by sea edged up by 0.4 percent annually to 817,000, where those disembarking at the Provisional Ferry Terminal in Taipa (315,000) rose by 12.4 percent, while those at the Outer Harbor (501,000) decreased by 5.9 percent. Meanwhile, visitor arrivals by air were down last month by 3.4 percent year-on-year to 217,000, with those arriving at the airport constituting the vast majority.

In the first two months of 2017, visitor arrivals totaled 5,371,000, up by 5.5 percent year-on-year. Overnight visitors (2,595,000) and same-day visitors (2,776,000) rose by 11.1 percent and 0.8 percent respectively, compared to the same period of the previous year.

In the first two months of 2017, visitors from mainland China reached 3,662,000, up by 5.9 percent year-on-year. At the same time, visitors from South Korea (164,000) and Hong Kong (1,028,000) increased by 24.2 percent and 3.2 percent respectively, while those from Taiwan (171,000) decreased slightly by 0.7 percent.

Visitors from the U.S. (28,900) and Canada (11,600) increased year-on-year, while those from Australia (15,100) and the United Kingdom (8,100) decreased.