Tourism | Package tour visitors climb 3.1pct in June

Visitors on package tours totaled 682,000 in June 2018, according to the latest data from the Statistics and Census Bureau, up by 3.1 percent year-on- year and yet down by 4 percent month-to-month. Package tour visitors from mainland China (515,000) edged down by 0.1 percent compared with the same month last year, while those from South Korea (45,000) and Taiwan (59,000) increased by 16.5 percent and 67.6 percent respectively.

For the first half-year of 2018, package tour visitors totaled 4.27 million, up by 13.8 percent year- on-year.

There were 116 hotels and guesthouses operating at the end of June 2018 with a total of 39,000 guest rooms. The number of guests of hotels and guesthouses during the month rose by 6 percent year-on-year to 1.15 million. Guests coming from mainland China (764,000) and Taiwan (44,000) increased by 11 percent and 4.4 percent respectively, while those from South Korea (39,000) and Hong Kong (138,000) dropped by 5.2 percent and 8.2 percent.

In the first half of 2018, guests of hotels and guesthouses reached over 6.8 million, up by 7.8 percent year-on-year. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses rose by 4 percentage points to 88.6 percent.

Meanwhile, outbound residents using the services of travel agencies increased by 14.1 percent year-on-year to 123,000, and the number of residents traveling on package tours decreased by 15.6 percent to 37,000, with those going to mainland China dropping 2.7 percent to 28,000.

In the first half-year of 2018, outbound residents using the services of travel agencies amounted to 765,000, up by around 15 percent year-on-year.