MACAO -- Macao's visitor arrivals in package tours increased by 12.9 percent year on year to 4,610,370 in the first half of this year, according to figures released on Thursday by the city's Statistics and Census Bureau.

The figures showed that visitor arrivals in package tours in June alone increased by 19.5 percent to 790,996. The visitors mainly came from the Chinese mainland (622,977), followed by those from China's Taiwan (44,918) and Hong Kong (32,202), as well as South Korea (25,886).

Meanwhile, the number of local residents traveling outbound using services of travel agencies increased by 9.4 percent to 119, 508 in June. Those traveling in package tours totaled 47,533. The Chinese mainland, Thailand and China's Taiwan are their main destinations.

In the first half of this year, outbound residents increased by 23.5 percent to 716,601, of which 266,197 traveled in package tours, according to the bureau.