By: Ben Blaschke
The number of visitors to Macau via package tours dipped 1.5% year-on-year in February to 559,000, although that figure represents a 4.7% increase over January, according to figures released by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC). Package tour visitors from Mainland China (414,000) and Taiwan (36,000) dropped by 5.4% and 9.3% respectively year-on-year, while those from the Republic of Korea (49,000) surged by 54.4%. In the first two months of 2017, visitors on package tours totalled 1,092,000, down by 4.0% year-on-year.
Outbound residents using services of travel agencies increased by 9.3% year-on-year to 114,000. Residents travelling on package tours went up by 12.1% to 48,000, with those going to Mainland China (34,000) rising by 13.7% and those to the Republic of Korea (6,900) soaring by 76.9%. In the first two months of 2017, outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 227,000, up by 10.4% year-on-year.
The total number of hotels and guesthouses operating at the end of February 2017 increased to 108. The number of guest rooms totalled 36,000, up by 13.2% year-on-year, with 5-star hotel rooms rising by 7.0% to 22,000, representing 60.2% of the total.
In the first two months of 2017, guests of hotels and guesthouses totalled 1,991,000, up by 11.9% year-on-year. The average occupancy rate of hotels andguesthouses rose 5% to 83.2%, while the average length of stay of guests held stable at 1.4 nights.
