Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitor arrivals decreased by 2.0% year-on-year to 2,495,851 in December 2012, and same-day visitors (1,243,291) accounted for 49.8% of the total. The average length of stay of visitors stood at 1.0 day, up by 0.1 day year-on-year. Visitors from Mainland China increased slightly by 0.9% from December 2011 to 1,495,316, coming mostly from Guangdong Province (613,392) and Fujian Province (67,444); Mainland visitors travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) increased by 5.4% to 603,904. Visitor arrivals from Taiwan, China (88,814) and the Republic of Korea (44,150) increased by 3.6% and 14.7% respectively; however, those coming from Hong Kong (611,826) and Malaysia (37,778) both decreased by 7.0%. Long-haul visitors from Europe (22,828) increased by 5.9%, while those from the Americas (26,070) and Oceania (12,436) decreased by 6.8% and 4.5% respectively. For the whole year of 2012, visitor arrivals increased by 0.3% year-on-year to 28,082,292; same-day visitors (14,504,994) accounted for 51.7% of the total. The average length of stay of visitors stood at 1.0 day, similar to that of 2011. Analysed by place of residents, visitors from Mainland China increased by 4.6% year-on-year to 16,902,499 in 2012, of which 7,131,904 travelled to Macao under the IVS, up by 8.2%; those from the Republic of Korea (444,773) and Thailand (231,295) increased by 11.5% and 17.8% respectively. However, visitor arrivals from Hong Kong (7,081,153) and Taiwan, China (1,072,052) decreased by 6.6% and 11.8% respectively. Long-haul visitors from Europe (262,692) and Oceania (129,165) increased by 4.3% and 0.9% respectively, while those from the Americas (306,521) decreased by 1.3%.
