Tourism | Number of visitors on package tours declines

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) has indicated that in the first half year of 2016, visitors on package tours totaled to 3.4 million, down by 31.2 percent year-on-year.
In June 2016, the number of visitors on package tours was down by 20.7 percent year-on-­year, totaling 571,000. Package tour visitors from mainland China (442,000) and Taiwan (34,000) decreased by some 24 percent and 27 percent respectively year-on-year, while those from the Republic of Korea (31,000) increased by 125.8 percent.
Outbound residents using the services of travel agencies totaled 94,000 in June 2016, a 20.9 percent year-on-year drop. Residents travelling on package tours decreased by 21.7 percent year-on-year to 37,000, with the main destinations being mainland China, the Republic of Korea and Taiwan.
According to DSEC, those travelling to the Republic of Korea soared by 611.4 percent due to the low base of comparison in June 2015, which resulted from the outbreak of MERS in Korea at that time. In the first half-year of 2016, outbound residents using the services of travel agencies summed up to 597,000, down by 17.7 percent year-on-year.
There were 105 hotels and guesthouses operating at the end of June 2016, an increase of three year-on-year. The number of guest rooms totaled 32,000, up by 2,500 year-on-year.
Meanwhile, a total of 935,000 guests checked into hotels and guesthouses in June 2016, up by 16.5 percent year-on-year. Guests from mainland China (583,000), Hong Kong (145,000) and Taiwan (44,000) registered double-digit growth, at some 17 percent, 13 percent and 39.2 percent respectively.
Guests’ average length of stay for the month held stable at 1.4 nights as in June 2015. The average occupancy rate of hotels and guesthouses rose notably by 6.6 percentage points year-­on-year to 82 percent, with four-star hotels leading at 85.7 percent, up significantly by 12.4 percentage points year-on-year.
In the first half of 2016, guests of hotels and guesthouses totaled 5,443,000, an increase of nearly 13 percent year-on-year. The average occupancy rate of hotels and guesthouses stood at 78.6 percent and guests’ average length of stay was 1.4 nights.