Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that during the Summer Holiday, visitor arrivals in package tour increased by 6.6% year-on-year to 973,766 in August 2013. Visitors in package tour mostly came from Mainland China (770,365), with 292,733 from Guangdong Province; followed by Taiwan, China (62,622); Hong Kong (38,586); and the Republic of Korea (32,706). In the first eight months of 2013, visitors in package tour totalled 6,469,508, up by 11.1% year-on-year. Outbound residents using services of travel agencies were 134,686 in August, up by 11.0% year-on-year; those travelling in package tour totalled 51,228 and the main destinations were Mainland China, the Republic of Korea, Thailand and Taiwan, China. In the first eight months of 2013, outbound residents increased by 16.0% year-on-year to 958,998 and 366,676 travelled in package tour. There were 97 hotels and guesthouses operating at the end of August 2013, providing 27,761 guest rooms, up by 14.4% year-on-year, of which the 5-star hotels had 18,373 rooms, accounting for 66.2% of the total. In August 2013, a total of 989,433 guests checked into hotels and guesthouses, up by 12.2% year-on-year, with 590,660 staying in 5-star hotels (+20.7%). The average length of stay of guests held stable as August 2012, at 1.3 nights. The average occupancy rate reached 90.3%, up by 2.2 percentage points year-on-year, with 5-star hotels leading at 91.5%. Total number of guests was 7,130,178 in the first eight months of 2013, up by 14.4% year-on-year; the average occupancy rate stood at 81.8%, down by 1.5 percentage points. From January to August 2013, visitor-guests took up 70.3% of the total number of overnight visitors, higher than the 64.5% in the same period of 2012.
