Visitor Arrivals for December 2008

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals totalled 2,546,079 in December 2008, corresponding to a year-on-year decrease of 2.7% since June 2003. Visitors from Mainland China (1,389,822) dropped by 3.9%, whereas those from Hong Kong (736,651) and Southeast Asia (180,001) rose by 1.6% and 3.3% respectively. Same-day visitors took up 50.1% of the total arrivals, at 1,275,453. The majority of the visitors came from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, which accounted for 54.6%, 28.9% and 7.1% of the total respectively. Among the Mainland visitors, 477,859 travelled to Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme, down notably by 30.4% year-on-year. For 2008 as a whole, total visitor arrivals reached 30,185,740, up by 11.8% over 2007. Visitors from Mainland China (17,500,469) and Southeast Asia increased by 17.7% and 33.3% respectively and those from Hong Kong went up slightly by 0.7%. Furthermore, same-day visitors shared 52.8% of the total arrivals, at 15,944,091. Analysed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by sea increased by 7.9% over 2007 to 9,690,248, with 7,659,127 arriving at the Outer Harbour, down by 9.8% year-on-year. Meanwhile, 1,638,607 visitors arrived at the Provisional Ferry Terminal in Taipa. Visitor arrivals by land rose by 13.7% to 18,797,273. Visitors arriving through the Border Gate increased by 11.1% to 17,833,766 and the majority were from Mainland China (80.4%) and Hong Kong (14.0%). In addition, visitor arrivals by air totalled 1,698,219, up by 15.2% over 2007. Visitors arriving at the Macao International Airport rose by 13.5% to 1,663,088, with the majority coming from Taiwan, China (34.9%), Southeast Asia (31.2%) and Mainland China (21.8%).
NOTE