Tourist flow declines in November

Compared to the previous month, visitor arrivals in November decreased by 3.4 percent.

Yet visitor arrivals last month were similar over the same month of 2015, at 2,588,645, including 109 visitors travelling under the “cross-border yacht sailing scheme” which became effective as from November 23.

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that overnight visitors rose by 10.4 percent year-on-year to 1,374,752, accounting for 53.1 percent of the total, while same-day visitors dropped by 9.7 percent to 1,213,893.

The average length of stay of visitors increased by 0.1 day year-on-year to 1.2 days; the average stay of overnight visitors and same-day visitors was 2.1 days and 0.2 day respectively.

Visitors from mainland China decreased by 1.2 percent year-on-year to 1,705,721 in November, of which those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme increased by 2.1 percent to 791,007.

Mainland visitors came mainly from Guangdong Province, which accounted for 716,282 visitors; Hunan Province and Fujian Province.

Both Hong Kong and Taiwanese visitors dropped by 1.4 percent, of which visitors from Taiwan recorded the first decline after 16 consecutive months of year-on-year increases.

Visitors from the Republic of Korea and Japan surged by 34.6 percent and 25.4 percent respectively.

Long-haul visitors from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom increased year-on-year, while those from Australia decreased.

Analyzed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by land decreased by 3.1 percent year-on-year to 1,427,238; those arriving through the Border Gate dropped by five percent while those through the Checkpoint of Cotai rose by 12.5 percent.

Visitor arrivals by sea increased by 2.3 percent year-on-year to 961,480; those disembarking at the Outer Harbor and the Provisional Ferry Terminal in Taipa grew by 0.6 percent and 12 percent respectively. Visitor arrivals by air increased by 13.3 percent year-on-year to 199,927.

In the first 11 months of 2016, visitor arrivals surpassed 28 million, up slightly by 0.2 percent year-on-year; overnight visitors rose by 9.1 percent to 14,153,210 while same-day visitors dropped by 7.4 percent to 13,982,676.

The average length of stay of visitors increased by 0.1 day year-on-year to 1.2 days; the average stay of overnight visitors rose by 0.1 day to 2.2 days whereas that of same-day visitors remained stable at 0.2 day.

Visitors from Mainland China and Hong Kong decreased by 0.5 percent and 2.2 percent respectively year-on-year, while those from the Republic of Korea and Taiwan increased by 18.5 percent and 8.5 percent. Moreover, DSEC stated that visitors from the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom registered year-on-year growth.