The city saw the number of package-tour visitors plunge by 26.6 per cent year-on-year in November, in addition to a decrease of 5.7 percentage points in average hotel occupancy rate in the month.
According to the latest official data released by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), the Special Administrative Region received a total of 769,000 visitors on package tours in November. On a month-on-month comparison, the number represents a decrease of 6.8 per cent.
Of these total package-tour visitors, 42,000 joined local tours after they arrived at the territory, down by 74.8 per cent year-on-year. The other 727,000 who arrived on package tours also shows a decrease – 17.5 per cent year-on-year.
The sharp drop in the number of package tour visitors is not only due to those from Mainland China declining by 28 per cent year-on-year to 622,000 in the month. According to DSEC, package-tour visitors from Taiwan shrank by 39.7 per cent year-on-year to 37,000, while those from Hong Kong and South Korea also dropped by 27.5 per cent and 19.2 per cent year-on-year, amounting to 18,000 and 29,000, respectively.
However, the city welcomed more visitors from Japan, of which the number surged by 27.1 per cent year-on-year to 17,000 during the month.
Outbound
On the other hand, the number of local residents travelling by using services of travel agencies also registered a year-on-year decline of 9.6 per cent in November, totalling 119,000. In addition, those travelling outside the city on package tours fell 1.3 per cent year-on-year to 49,000.
The major destinations for local outbound tourists were Mainland China, which accounted for 72.9 per cent of the total, followed by South Korea (4.5 per cent) and Taiwan (8 per cent). Particularly, the number of outbound residents travelling to Japan soared by 49.8 per cent year-on-year in November, totalling 3,100 overall.
For the first eleven months of 2015, visitors on package tours reached 9.05 million, which is down by 10.2 per cent year-on-year, while outbound residents using services of travel agencies decreased by 1.5 per cent year-on-year to 1.38 million.
As at the end of November, there were a total of 104 hotels and guesthouses operating in the territory, offering a total of 32,000 hotel rooms. Of the total, 20,000 were 5-star hotel rooms, accounting for 63.1 per cent of the total.
A total of 932,000 guests checked into local hotels and guesthouses in November, which is up by 3.3 per cent year-on-year. Nevertheless, the average hotel occupancy rate dropped by 5.7 percentage points year-on-year to 84.6 per cent.
Local four-star hotel’s occupancy rate, 86.2 per cent, was the highest, among the hotels, despite such a rate, this still represents a decline of 5.8 percentage points year-on-year. Meanwhile, five-star hotels also saw occupancy drop by 5.8 percentage points to 85.3 per cent.
For the first eleven months of 2015, the average hotel occupancy rate stood at 80.2 per cent, which is down by 6.4 percentage points year-on-year. Meanwhile, the number of hotel guests fell by 4 per cent year-on-year to some 9.43 million.
