Package-tour visitors fall 20 pct in September

The city saw the number of visitors on package tours plunge by 20 per cent year-on-year to some 596,000 in September, as visitation from nearly all major visitor sources dropped despite tourism from South Korea surging, the latest official data released yesterday by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) shows.
In September, the number of visitors on package tours from Mainland China slumped by 23 per cent year-on-year to some 482,000, while those from Taiwan and Japan decreased by 11.1 per cent and 7.4 per cent year-on-year, amounting to some 32,700 and 13,800, respectively.
Declines were also recorded in the number of package tour visitors from Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand, which went down year-on-year by 19.6 per cent, 12 per cent and 3.7 per cent, to 12,700, 4,900 and 8,300, respectively.
Despite the decreases, the MSAR welcomed some 25,000 visitors on package tours from South Korea, a surge of nearly 45 per cent year-on-year. At the same time, the number of travellers on package tours departing from Macau for South Korea also soared by 130 per cent year-on-year to some 4,700 in the month.

Outbound trends
Over the course of the month, a total of 9,300 residents travelled outbound on package tours, down by 16.1 per cent year-on-year.
In particular, residents outbound on package tours to Mainland China posted a notable decrease of 27.8 per cent year-on-year to 48,500, while those to Japan fell by 14.6 per cent year-on-year to 27,000.
The city also saw fewer residents travelling on package tours to Taiwan and Malaysia during the period, with drops of 1.8 per cent and 40.7 per cent year-on-year to 11,400 and some 800, respectively.
For the first nine months of the year, the MSAR received a total of 5.4 million visitors on package tours, a slump of 27.8 per cent year-on-year, driven by a 30.5 per cent year-on-year drop in the number of visitors from Mainland China, amounting to 4.29 million.
In addition, package tour visitors from Hong Kong and Taiwan dropped by 33.5 per cent and 28.3 per cent year-on-year to 124,200 and 308,600 respectively, during the nine-month period. But those from South Korea, Japan and Thailand increased by 8.8 per cent, 6.1 per cent and 13.1 per cent – totalling 264,100, 111,900 and 100,100, respectively.
The total number of residents outbound on package tours came to 910,300 for the three quarters, a fall of 17.2 per cent year-on-year.

Hotel occupancy up as guests increase
As at the end of September, 107 hotels and guesthouses were operating in the MSAR, providing a total of 36,000 rooms, an increase of 6,200 rooms compared to one year ago.
According to the DSEC, the average hotel occupancy rate went up by 3.6 percentage points year-on-year to 82.1 per cent for the month, boosted by a 10.5 percentage point increase in the occupancy of local four-star hotels, to 86.5 per cent.
Meanwhile, the average occupancy rate of five-star hotels rose slightly by 0.6 percentage points year-on-year to 81.3 per cent, while that of three-star hotels jumped by 6.3 percentage points year-on-year, reaching 82.2 per cent.
In fact, the growth in the average hotel occupancy rate was attributed to an increase in the number of guests.
The DSEC said a total of 1.03 million of guests checked-in to local hotels and guesthouses in September, which represents year-on-year growth of 20.2 per cent. Of the total, 643,700 were from Mainland China, a year-on-year jump of 20.9 per cent.
For the first nine months of the year, the total number of hotel guests reached 8.59 million, up by 12.9 per cent year-on-year, driving the average occupancy rate up by 1.2 percentage points year-on-year to 81.2 per cent.
Of the total hotel guests for period, those from the mainland grew by 11.3 per cent year-on-year to 5.45 million, followed by those from Hong Kong, which accounted for 1.29 million, an increase of 20.3 per cent year-on-year.