Tourism | Group visitors surge in March

Visitors on package tours totaled 1,711,000 in the first quarter of 2017, up slightly by 0.6 percent year-on-
year.

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitors on package tours in March totaled 629,000, up by 11.7 percent year-on-year and 14.5 percent month-to-month.

Package tour visitors from mainland China (486,000), Korea (39,000) and Taiwan (36,000) went up by 9.9 percent, 65.4 percent and 11.2 percent, respectively, year-on-
year.

Outbound residents using services of travel agencies decreased slightly by 0.9 percent year-on-year to 106,000.

The number of residents travelling on package tours dropped by 5.1 percent to 43,000. Those going to mainland China went down by 4.8 percent, while those travelling to South Korea rose by 10.0 percent.

In the first quarter of 2017, outbound residents using services of travel agencies totaled 333,000, up by 6.4 percent year-on-year.

There were 108 hotels and guesthouses operating at the end of March 2017.

The number of guest rooms increased by 13.1 percent year-on-year to 36,000, of which five-star hotel rooms (22,000) took up 60.2 percent.

1,056,000 guests checked into hotels and guesthouses in March 2017, up by 17.3 percent year-on-year.

Guests from mainland China (701,000), Korea (37,000) and Taiwan (37,000) went up by 24.8 percent, 73.6 percent and 27.9 percent, respectively. The number of guests from Hong Kong (130,000) decreased by 11.4 percent. The average length of guests’ stays stood at 1.4 nights, similar to March 2016.

The average occupancy rate of hotels and guesthouses increased to 82.7 percent, up by 5.5 percentage points year-on- year. Four star hotels took the lead at 87.9 percent, up by 8.0 percentage points, while the rates of five-star (82.3 percent) and three- star hotels (80.6 percent) went up by 4.9 and 0.9 percentage points, respectively.

In the first quarter of 2017, guests of hotels and guesthouses totaled 3,047,000, up by 13.7 percent year-on-year.

The average occupancy rate of hotels and guesthouses increased by 5.2 percentage points to 83.0 percent.

Visitor-guests accounted for 73.0 percent of total overnight visitors, up by 1.2 percentage points year- on-year.