Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitor arrivals in package tours increased by 28.0% year-on-year to 695,762 in April 2012. Visitors from Mainland China (491,337) went up by 20.3%, with 170,164 coming from Guangdong Province; besides, those from Taiwan, China (53,774); Hong Kong (41,672); and the Republic of Korea (23,247) soared by 95.6%, 68.6% and 25.3% respectively. In the first four months of 2012, visitors in package tours totalled 2,746,238, up by 40.7% year-on-year to account for 29.5% of the total visitor arrivals, higher than the 22.3% in the same period of 2011. In view of the Ching Ming Festival and the long Easter holidays, outbound residents in package tours surged by 64.6% year-on-year to 30,647 in April 2012. The most popular tour itineraries were Mainland China (81.7% of total); the Republic of Korea (5.0%); and Taiwan, China (4.1%), with 17,502 travelling to Guangdong Province. In the first four months of 2012, residents travelling in package tours totalled 104,225, up by 41.6% year-on-year. Meanwhile, outbound residents travelling under own arrangements using services of travel agencies increased by 25.8% year-on-year to 58,214 in April 2012; the main destinations were Mainland China (47.1% of total); Hong Kong (23.3%); and Taiwan, China (16.3%). In the first four months of 2012, those travelling under such arrangements surged by 56.9% year-on-year to 271,120. Attributable to the opening of new hotels, number of available guest rooms of the 97 hotels and guest-houses totalled 24,211 at the end of April 2012, an increase of 4,063 rooms (+20.2%) year-on-year, with those of the 5-star hotels accounting for 61.3% of the total. Hotels and guest-houses received 767,679 guests in April 2012, an increase of 13.6% year-on-year; the average length of stay decreased by 0.08 night to 1.4 nights. The average occupancy rate of hotels and guest-houses stood at 82.0%, down by 2.5 percentage points year-on-year; average occupancy rate of the hotels was 82.5%, with 5-star hotels leading at 83.1%. Number of guests increased by 13.6% year-on-year to 2,948,365 in the first four months of 2012; average occupancy rate of hotels and guest-houses stood at 82.9%, up by 1.0 percentage point year-on-year. From January to April 2012, visitor-guests accounted for 64.0% of the total number of overnight visitors, higher than the 61.0% in the same period of 2011.
