Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitors on package tours decreased by 8.9% year-on-year to 687,000 in September 2018   due  to   the   impact   of   the   typhoon,   and   registered   a   drop   of   12.1%  month-to-month. Package tour visitors from Mainland China (526,000) went down by 16.6% year-on-year, while those from the Republic of Korea (52,000) and Taiwan (60,000) surged by 58.8% and 64.0% respectively. In the first three quarters of 2018, visitors on package tours totalled 6,495,000, up by 8.2% year-on-year.

Outbound  residents  using  services  of  travel  agencies  increased  by  17.1% year-on-year to 124,000. Number of residents travelling on package tours dropped by 3.9% to 36,000, with those going to Mainland China rising by 19.6% to 29,000 (78.6% of total). In the first three quarters of 2018, outbound residents using services of travel agencies totalled 1,159,000, up by 14.0% year-on-year.

There were 116 hotels & guesthouses operating at the end of September 2018, an increase of 9 year-on-year. Number of guest rooms grew by 5.5% year-on-year to 39,000; with 5-star hotel rooms increasing by 10.0% to 25,000, accounting for 63.1% of the total.

Number of guests of hotels & guesthouses in September 2018 rose by 6.0% year-on-year to 1,110,000. Guests coming from Mainland China (769,000) and Hong Kong (118,000) increased by 8.1% and 12.3% respectively, whereas those from the Republic of Korea (40,000) and Taiwan (41,000) dropped by 3.3% and 2.9% respectively. The average length of stay of guests held steady year-on-year at 1.5 nights. Meanwhile, the average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses went up by 0.3 percentage points year-on-year to 86.8%, with 5-star hotels recording a relatively high rate of 88.5%, up by 1.6 percentage points.

In the first three quarters of 2018, guests of hotels & guesthouses totalled 10,482,000, up by 7.8% year-on-year. The average occupancy rate of hotels & guesthouses rose by 3.6 percentage points to 89.3% and the average length of stay of guests remained at 1.5 nights. Visitor-guests accounted for 72.7% of the total overnight visitors, an increase of 0.3 percentage points year-on-year.