Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitor arrivals decreased by 4.2% year-on-year to 2,444,264 in July 2012; same-day visitors (1,196,291) accounted for 48.9% of the total. The average length of stay of visitors stood at 1.0 day, down by 0.1 day year-on-year, with the overnight and same-day visitors staying 1.8 days and 0.2 day respectively. Analysed by place of residence, visitors from Mainland China decreased slightly by 0.3% year-on-year to 1,456,351, coming mostly from Guangdong Province (683,285), Fujian Province (70,439) and Zhejiang Province (56,937); Mainland visitors travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme rose by 4.1% to 643,147. Visitors from the Republic of Korea (36,030) and Japan (35,132) increased by 2.0% and 20.1% year-on-year respectively, while those from Hong Kong (639,580) and Taiwan, China (112,263) both registered a decrease of 11.1%. Long-haul visitors from the Americas (25,648), Europe (19,085) and Oceania (9,209) also decreased by 7.5%, 7.6% and 9.4% respectively. In the first seven months of 2012, visitor arrivals totalled 16,021,978 but the rate of increase narrowed to 1.4% year-on-year. Visitors from Mainland China (9,567,563), the Republic of Korea (250,815) and Japan (241,265) increased by 7.1%, 8.7% and 15.6% respectively. On the contrary, visitors from Hong Kong (4,113,909) and Taiwan, China (613,654) decreased by 7.4% and 15.5% respectively.
