Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that visitor arrivals in package tour totalled 244,654 in May 2009, a substantial decrease of 42.5% year-on-year, attributable to the influence of the human swine influenza pandemic and implementation of the new Travel Agency Regulation in Mainland China. Visitors from Mainland China (157,543), Hong Kong (17,792) and Japan (12,182) decreased by 43.5%, 44.5% and 38.8% respectively year-on-year whereas those from Taiwan, China (15,415) increased by 2.8%. In the first five months of 2009, visitor arrivals in package tours rose slightly by 0.9% over the same period of 2008 to 2,091,360. In May 2009, the number of Macao residents travelling outbound in package tours decreased by 17.1% year-on-year to 13,306. Mainland China (79.5%); Taiwan, China (7.1%); and Japan (4.3%) were the most popular tour itineraries. In the first five months of 2009, residents travelling in package tours decreased by 8.0% year-on-year to 79,533. Meanwhile, residents travelling outbound under own arrangements with services of travel agencies totalled 36,691, up by 25.5% over May 2008. Mainland China (39.7%) and Hong Kong (31.3%) were the main destinations. In the first five months of 2009, outbound residents travelling under such arrangements rose by 8.8% year-on-year to 163,207. At the end of May 2009, the number of guest rooms available in the hotel sector increased by 1,301 (+8.0%) from a year earlier to 17,529 rooms. In May 2009, a total of 444,912 guests checked into hotels and similar establishments, down by 18.2% year-on-year, with the majority of guests coming from Mainland China (47.0%) and Hong Kong (24.3%). The average hotel occupancy rate decreased notably by 13.5 percentage points year-on-year to 59.4%, with 4-star and 5-star hotels leading at 61.7% and 61.3% respectively. The average length of stay of hotel guests increased by 0.14 night year-on-year to 1.49 nights. The cumulative number of hotel guests decreased by 1.4% in the first five months of 2009 to 2,658,967. From January to May 2009, visitor-guests of hotels accounted for 61.7% of the total number of tourists, up from 56.3% in the corresponding period of 2008.
Is there anything wrong with this page?