Tourism | Group tours up by 6 percent in November

Visitors on package tours increased by 6 percent month-to-month to 728,000 in November 2016, with the year-on-year decline narrowing to 6.5 percent when compared to the 17.8 percent year-on- year decline of October 2016.

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that package tour visitors from mainland China and the Republic of Korea decreased by 7.5 percent and 5.5 percent respectively year-on-year, while those from Taiwan increased by 1 percent.

In the first 11 months of 2016, visitors on package tours totaled 6,831,000, down by 25.1 percent year- on-year.

Outbound residents using services of travel agencies totaled 101,000 in November 2016, which represents a decrease of 11.1 percent year-on-year.

Residents travelling on package tours decreased by 17.9 percent year-on- year to 38,000. Within this figure,  residents travelling to mainland China dropped by 9,100, while those travelling to the Republic of Korea and Taiwan increased by 62.3 percent and 14.4 percent respectively.

In the first 11 months of 2016, the total number of outbound residents using the services of travel agencies totaled 1,121,000, down by 15.9 percent year-on-year.

There were 107 hotels and guesthouses operating at the end of November 2016, which is an increase of three year-on-year. The number of guest rooms increased by 14 percent year-on-year to 36,000, with that of 3-star hotels seeing a significant increase of 116.7 percent.

The number of guest rooms of 5-star and 4-star hotels together accounted for 81.2 percent of the total rooms available.

The number of guests in hotels and guesthouses for November 2016 increased by 18 percent year-on-year to 1,103,000. Staying in these accommodations, guests from mainland China, the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan increased their patronage by 19.6 percent, 61.9 percent, 7 percent and 12.9 percent respectively.

The average length of stay decreased year-on-year by 0.1 nights, leaving the average length of stay at 1.4 nights.

Meanwhile, the average occupancy rate of hotels and guesthouses stood at 86.4 percent in November 2016, an increase of 1.9 percentage points year-on-year, with 4-star hotels leading this figure with a 92.8 percent occupancy rate.

Until November of 2016, guests of hotels and guesthouses totaled 10,756,000, up by 14 percent year- on-year. The average occupancy rate of hotels and guesthouses stood at 82 percent, an increase by 1.4 percentage points. Visitor-guests accounted for 71.6 percent of the total overnight visitors, up by 3.4 percentage points year-on-year.