Visitor Arrivals for August 2008

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals totalled 2,583,372 in August 2008, a year-on-year increase of 8.5%. Visitors from Mainland China (1,488,084) and Hong Kong (757,784) rose by 10.6% and 5.2% respectively, while those from Taiwan, China (112,454) decreased by 7.0%. Same-day visitors took up 52.6% of the total arrivals, at 1,357,855. The majority of the visitors came from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, China, which accounted for 57.6%, 29.3% and 4.4% of the total respectively. Among the Mainland visitors, 603,865 (40.6%) travelled to Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme, down by 6.9% year-on year. In the first eight months of 2008, visitor arrivals reached 20,172,569, up by 17.1% year-on-year. Visitors from Mainland China (11,797,357) and Hong Kong went up by 25.1% and 0.9% respectively, while those from Taiwan, China dropped by 5.0%. Furthermore, same-day visitors made up 52.9% of the total arrivals, at 10,662,177. Analyzed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by sea increased by 12.4% over the first eight months of 2007 to 6,467,525. Among them, 5,513,046 arrived at the Outer Harbour (+1.4%), with 57.6% from Hong Kong and 22.7% from Mainland China. Visitor arrivals by land grew by 19.3% to 12,566,636. Visitors arriving through the Border Gate increased by 14.7% to 11,885,917 and the majority were visitors from Mainland China (79.9%) and Hong Kong (14.4%). In addition, visitor arrivals by air totalled 1,138,408, up by 20.9% over the first eight months of 2007. Visitors arriving at the Macao International Airport rose by 19.3% to 1,114,233, with those from Taiwan, China (35.3%), Southeast Asia (29.8%) and Mainland China (22.2%) as the major users.