Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitor arrivals in package tours increased by 8.4% year-on-year to 662,109 in June 2012. Visitors from Mainland China (465,860) went up by 3.8%, with 167,266 coming from Guangdong Province; besides, those from Taiwan, China (58,971); Hong Kong (28,649); the Republic of Korea (23,808); and Japan (22,225) increased by 66.2%, 23.4%, 22.1% and 25.8% respectively. In the first half year of 2012, visitors in package tours totalled 4,082,895, up by 25.9% year-on-year to account for 30.1% of the total visitor arrivals. Outbound residents in package tours surged by 74.4% year-on-year to 39,867 in June 2012. The most popular tour itineraries were Mainland China (67.3% of total) and the Republic of Korea (10.2%), with 16,892 travelling to Guangdong Province. In the first half year of 2012, residents travelling in package tours totalled 179,031, up by 52.4% year-on-year. Meanwhile, outbound residents travelling under own arrangements using services of travel agencies increased by 30.5% year-on-year to 69,326 in June 2012; the main destinations were Mainland China (48.7% of total); Hong Kong (22.4%); and Taiwan, China (15.7%). In the first half year of 2012, residents travelling under such arrangements increased by 44.7% year-on-year to 401,145. There were 66 hotels and 33 guest-houses operating at the end of June 2012, providing a total of 24,268 guest rooms, an increase of 2,592 rooms (+12.0%) year-on-year; guest rooms of the 5-star hotels accounted for 61.1% of the total. In June 2012, the hotels and guest-houses received 773,570 guests, up by 9.8% year-on-year; the average length of stay decreased by 0.16 night to 1.3 nights. Occupancy rate of hotels and guest-houses stood at 80.2%, down by 2.3 percentage points; occupancy rate of the hotels was 80.8%, with 4-star hotels leading at 86.7%. Number of guests increased by 12.2% year-on-year to 4,476,310 in the first half year of 2012; occupancy rate of hotels and guest-houses stood at 81.6%, down by 0.4 percentage point. From January to June 2012, visitor-guests accounted for 64.9% of the total number of overnight visitors, higher than the 61.7% in the same period of 2011.
