Tourism | National Day boosts visitor arrivals

Visitor arrivals rose by 1.6 percent year-on-year to 2,678,447 in October 2016, according to information released yesterday by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC). The number of visitors represents an increase of 10.4 percent month-to-month, which DSEC attributes to the National Day holidays.

In October, the number of overnight visitors rose by 12.1 percent year-on-year to 1,370,967, accounting for around 51.2 percent of the total. At the same time, same-day visitors dropped by 7.6 percent year-on-year to 1,307,480.

Analyzed by the places of origin, visitors from mainland China rose modestly to 1,825,123, increasing by 0.4 percent compared with October 2015. Mainland visitors came mainly from Guangdong Province (801,452), Hunan Province (78,389) and Fujian Province (68,198).

During October, the number of visitors from Hong Kong (514,273), Taiwan (87,063) and South Korea (52,118) all increased compared with the same month in the previous year, rising by 1.8 percent, 4.3 percent and 22.1 percent respectively.

Long-term visitors from the United States (16,988), Australia (8,854), Canada (7,503) and the United Kingdom (6,288) increased marginally year-on-year.

Visitor arrivals by land increased by 3.7 percent year-on-year to 1,562,378, with arrivals via the Border Gate (1,355,604) and the Cotai Checkpoint (205,379) rising by one percent and 26.3 percent respectively.

Visitor arrivals by sea decreased by four percent year-on-
year to 914,876, with more than 60 percent disembarking at the Outer Harbor Terminal. Visitors arriving by air surged by 13.1 percent year-on-year to 201,193.

In the first 10 months of 2016, visitor arrivals totaled 25,547,241, up slightly by 0.2 percent year-on-year, according to DSEC.