Package Tours: More than 800,000 tourists in April

Visitors on package tours totalled 806,000 in April 2015, down 6.8 per cent from a year ago. According to the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) package tour visitors from Mainland China (648,000) and Taiwan (45,000) dropped by 6.6 per cent and 19.6 per cent year-on-year, while those from the Republic of Korea (35,000) and Hong Kong (29,000) rose by 11.9 per cent and 0.5 per cent, respectively. Visitors arriving on package tours decreased by 7.7 per cent year-on-year to 657,000, with those from Mainland China (518,000) and Taiwan (38,000) dropping by 8.4 per cent and 21.2 per cent, respectively. Meanwhile, visitors joining local tours totalled 150,000, a decrease of 2.6 per cent . In the first four months of 2015, visitors on package tours reached 3,385,000, up by 6.5 per cent year-on-year; those arriving on package tours grew by 6.1 per cent to 2,751,000. Outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 113,000 in April 2015, a year-on-year decrease of 1.8 per cent; those travelling on package tours dropped by 1.1 per cent to 45,000, with the main destinations Mainland China (77.0 per cent of total), Taiwan (8.8 per cent ), the Republic of Korea (4.2 per cent) and Hong Kong (3.5 per cent ). In the first four months of 2015, outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 497,000, up by 6.2 per cent year-on-year. There were 99 hotels and guesthouses operating at the end of April 2015, providing 28,000 guest rooms, up by 1.7 per cent year-on-year; 5-star hotels accounted for 64.8 per cent of the total supply, with 18,000 rooms.