Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitor arrivals in package tours increased by 21.9% year-on-year to 749,496 in September 2012. Visitors from Mainland China (538,178) increased by 23.7%, with 222,914 coming from Guangdong Province; besides, those from Taiwan, China (69,911); the Republic of Korea (35,093) and Japan (21,798) increased by 50.8%, 33.9% and 14.2% respectively. On the contrary, visitors from Hong Kong (33,208) decreased marginally by 0.1%. In the first three quarters of 2012, visitors in package tours (6,571,468) increased by 24.5% year-on-year to account for 31.5% of total visitor arrivals. Outbound residents in package tours soared by 107.6% year-on-year to 32,373 in September 2012. The most popular tour itineraries were Mainland China (82.3% of total); Taiwan, China (4.1%) and the Republic of Korea (3.8%), with 18,073 travelling to Guangdong Province. In the first three quarters of 2012, residents travelling in package tours totalled 300,153, up by 60.6% year-on-year. Meanwhile, outbound residents travelling under own arrangements using services of travel agencies increased by 18.5% year-on-year to 72,833 in September 2012. The main destinations were Mainland China (49.5% of total); Hong Kong (22.5%); and Taiwan, China (15.1%). In the first three quarters of 2012, residents travelling under such arrangements increased by 33.8% year-on-year to 632,037. There were 100 hotels and guesthouses operating in September 2012, providing 26,083 rooms, an increase of 3,704 (+16.6%) year-on-year, of which guest rooms of the 5-star hotels accounted for 63.9% of the total. In September 2012, the hotels and guesthouses received 785,170 guests, up by 11.9% year-on-year; the average length of stay decreased by 0.18 night to 1.3 nights. Occupancy rate of hotels and guesthouses stood at 81.0%, up by 1.2 percentage points; occupancy rate of the hotels was 81.5%, with 4-star hotels leading at 82.9%. Number of guests increased by 11.5% year-on-year to 7,018,836 in the first three quarters of 2012; occupancy rate of hotels and guesthouses stood at 82.6%, down by 0.6 percentage point. From January to September 2012, visitor-guests accounted for 64.9% of the total number of overnight visitors, higher than the 61.5% in the same period of 2011.
