Hotel Occupancy Rebounds

Cecilia U
[email protected] Visitor arrivals to the city in the month of July totalled 2.79 million, up 5.5 per cent year-on-year, according to the official data released yesterday by the Statistics and Census Services (DSEC).
The growth in July does not show a significant increase in total visitor arrivals in the first seven months of 2016 when compared to last year’s results, however, posting a marginal increase of just 0.9 per cent.
Official data also reveals an increase of 12.4 per cent year-on-year in the number of overnight visitors, at 1.46 million during the month. By contrast, there was a decline in same-day visitors, down 1.0 per cent year-on-year at 1.34 million, DSEC shows.
Visitors from Mainland China to the MSAR totalled 1.84 million in July, an increase of 4.7 per cent year-on-year, of which those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) increased 6.7 per cent to 879,423. The majority of Mainland visitors originated from Guangdong Province – amounting to 824,903. Other major Chinese provinces include Hunan (84,148) and Fujian (70,745).
Continued growth
in non-Chinese tourists
DSEC data reveals continued growth in the number of visitors from most non-Chinese origins last month, in particular those from the Republic of Korea, who soared 40.3 per cent year-on-year to 51,992. Despite the year-on-year increase, Korean visitors only occupied 1.9 per cent of total visitor markets.
Visitation from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan also increased – 5.5 per cent, 10.5 per cent and 4.5 per cent, respectively. However, visitors from the U.S.A. and Canada dropped year-on-year by 0.7 per cent and 5.6 per cent, respectively.
Meanwhile, visitors from Thailand posted the highest percentage growth in same-day visitation, increasing 94.7 per cent year-on-year. Visitors from the Republic of Korea, on the other hand, posted the highest percentage increase in overnight visitors, up 39.8 per cent compared to the month of July in 2015.
DSEC data also indicated a 20.5 per cent increase in the number of arrivals by air year-on-year, whilst those who arrived by sea and land registered 4.0 per cent and 4.7 per cent growth year-on-year, respectively. Land arrival continued to be the major mode of transport, occupying 56 per cent, whilst arrivals by air occupied 8 per cent of total visitor arrivals, according to Business Daily calculations.