2010-07-13 17:37

MACAO - Macao's visitor arrivals in package tours surged by 132.9 percent year-on-year to 569,803 in May this year, according to the figures released on Tuesday by the city's Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC).

The figure showed that visitor arrivals in package tours in May from the Chinese mainland (422,204), Japan (22,645), Taiwan (21, 293) and Hong Kong (20,368) rose substantially by 168 percent, 85.9 percent, 38.1 percent and 14.5 percent respectively, and those from the Republic of Korea (14,714) and India (11,375) also registered notable increases.

Officials from the DSEC explained that visitor arrivals in package tours surged dramatically year-on-year as visitors in package tours for May last year was adversely affected by the A/ H1N1 influenza pandemic.

In the first five months of 2010, visitor arrivals in package tours increased by 23.2 percent year-on-year to 2,575,916.

Meanwhile, the number of local residents traveling outbound in package tours in May increased by 43.6 percent year-on-year to 19, 101. The Chinese mainland, Japan and Taiwan were the most popular tourist destinations, according to the Bureau.