Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals in package tours decreased by 11.9% year-on-year to 380,419 in October 2009. Visitors in package tours from Mainland China (264,826); Taiwan, China (25,047); and Hong Kong (19,679) fell by 9.8%, 24.6% and 35.3% respectively, while those from Japan (16,905) increased by 6.7%. In the first ten months of 2009, visitor arrivals in package tours dropped by 6.7% year-on-year to 3,665,078. In October 2009, the number of Macao residents travelling outbound in package tours decreased by 2.0% year-on-year to 15,986, with Mainland China (75.0% of total); Taiwan, China (7.3%); and Japan (4.8%) being the most popular tour itineraries. In the first ten months of 2009, residents travelling outbound in package tours dropped by 13.8% year-on-year to 160,778. Meanwhile, outbound residents travelling under own arrangements using services of travel agencies surged by 56.4% year-on-year to 46,580; the main destinations were Hong Kong (34.2% of total); Mainland China (33.0%); and Taiwan, China (14.5%). In the first ten months of 2009, outbound residents travelling under such arrangements rose by 19.1% year-on-year to 376,308. At the end of October 2009, total number of guest rooms available at the hotel sector increased by 1,467 (+8.6%) from a year earlier to 18,447 rooms. In October 2009, a total of 581,192 guests checked into hotels and guest-houses, up by 8.3% year-on-year, with the majority coming from Mainland China (49.7% of total) and Hong Kong (22.4%). The average hotel occupancy rate rose by 2.5 percentage points year-on-year to 74.0%, with 3-star hotels leading at 78.7%. The average length of stay of hotel guests increased by 0.05 night to 1.5 nights. The cumulative number of hotel guests increased slightly by 0.6% in the first ten months of 2009 to 5,386,282. In the first ten months of 2009, visitor-guests of hotels accounted for 61.0% of the total number of tourists, up from 57.5% in the corresponding period of 2008.
