Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that Macao registered 373,474 visitor arrivals in package tours in August 2008, down by 3.5% from a year earlier. Visitors from Southeast Asia (31,468) soared significantly by 119.2% year-on-year, while those from Mainland China (252,464) and Hong Kong (27,567) decreased by 10.7% and 6.1%. In the first eight months of 2008, visitor arrivals in package tours rose by 19.9% over the same period of 2007 to 3,192,670. The number of Macao residents travelling outbound in package tours increased by 7.5% year-on-year to 27,931 in August 2008. Mainland China (62.4%), Japan (11.1%) and Thailand (8.4%) were the three most popular tour itineraries. In the first eight months of 2008, Macao residents travelling in package tours rose by 6.2% over the same period of 2007 to 154,323. Meanwhile, 37,611 residents travelled outbound under individual arrangements using services provided by travel agencies, down by 29.8% over August 2007. Hong Kong (41.0%), Mainland China (25.5%) and Taiwan, China (13.7%) were the major destinations. In the first eight months of 2008, outbound residents travelling under such arrangements rose by 2.1% year-on-year to 255,301. At the end of August 2008, the total number of guest rooms available in the hotel sector grew by 799 (+5.1%) from a year earlier to 16,577 rooms. In August 2008, a total of 546,903 guests checked into hotels and similar establishments, up by 3.6% year-on-year; the majority of the guests came from Mainland China (43.8%) and Hong Kong (29.3%). The average hotel occupancy rate dropped by 7.1 percentage points to 76.7%, with 5-star hotels leading at 80.7%; in addition, the average length of stay of hotel guests extended by 0.2 night to 1.5 nights. Total number of hotel guests reached 4,342,112 in the first eight months of 2008, up by 17.6% over the same period of 2007. In the first eight months of 2008, visitor-guests staying in hotels accounted for 43.2% of the total number of tourists, up from 42.7% in the corresponding period of 2007.
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