TOURISM – STATISTICS | Package tour tourists drop 22 percent y-o-y

The number of tourists travelling on package tours totaled 820,000 in July 2015, up by 16.3 percent month-to-month and yet down by 22.3 pct year­-on-year, according to data released by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).
The statistical data most recently released indicates that package tour visitors from mainland China (687,000) decreased by 19.1 pct year-on-year, while those from Taiwan (55,000), Hong Kong (16,000) and the Republic of Korea (12,000) dropped by 24 pct, 44.8 pct and 61.7 pct respectively.
The number of visitors arriving on package tours decreased by 18.5 pct year-on-year to 717,000; meanwhile, the number of visitors joining local tours totaled 102,000, down by 41.5 pct. In the first seven months of 2015, the number of visitors on package tours totaled 5,762,000, down by 2.9 pct  year-on-year; the number of those arriving on package tours decreased by 2.3 pct to 4,746,000.
Other data released by DSEC indicates that outbound residents who make use of services of travel agencies totaled 137,000 in July 2015, down by 6.8 pct year-­on-year. The number of those travelling on package tours increased by 12.7 pct to 62,000, and the main destinations were mainland China (80.3 pct of total), Taiwan (6.7 pct) and Japan (4 pct). In the first seven months of 2015, outbound residents using services of travel agencies totaled 872,000, up by 1.9 pct year-on-year.
There were 102 hotels and guesthouses operating at the end of July, providing 30,000 guest rooms, up by 7.2 pct year-­on-year. The number of guest rooms in 5-star hotels totaled 20,000, accounting for 66.6 pct of the total supply.
The average length of stay for guests was 1.4 nights, signaling an increase of 0.1 nights year-on-year. The average occupancy rate of hotels and guesthouses decreased by 6.0 percentage points year-­on-year to 80.6 pct, but still higher than the monthly occupancy rate in the first half of the year. Meanwhile, 5-star hotels had the highest occupancy rate of 82.3 pct, down by 5.4 percentage points year-­on-year. In the first seven months of 2015, the number of hotel guests totaled 5,859,000 and the average occupancy rate stood at 78.5 pct.