Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that as the Lunar New Year falls on January this year, visitor arrivals totalled 2,503,609, up by 8% year-on-year, attributable to an increase in visitors from Mainland China. Same-day visitors accounted for 54% of the total, at 1,344,101. In January 2014, visitors from Mainland China increased by 15% year-on-year to 1,689,277, coming primarily from Guangdong Province (815,240), Fujian Province (59,924) and Shanghai (54,046); Mainland visitors travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme totalled 832,381, sharing 49% of the total from Mainland China. Moreover, visitors from Taiwan, China (77,859) and the Republic of Korea (59,143) increased by 1% and 12% respectively year-on-year, while those from Hong Kong (494,149) and Japan (25,736) decreased by 3% and 4%. Long-haul visitors from the United States (14,483), Australia (11,311) and Canada (5,750) decreased by 1%, 7% and 4% respectively year-on-year; on the contrary, visitors from the Russian Federation (4,115) increased by 6%. The average length of stay of visitors stayed unchanged from a year earlier, at 1.0 day in January 2014; overnight and same-day visitors stayed an average of 1.9 days and 0.2 day respectively.
