Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals in package tours increased by 20.9% year-on-year to 591,164 in June 2011. Visitors from Mainland China (435,493); Taiwan, China (33,257) and Republic of Korea (19,493) surged by 29.0%, 50.1%, and 65.5% respectively. On the contrary, visitors from Hong Kong (21,842) and Japan (17,670) decreased by 6.5% and 21.8%. In the first half year of 2011, visitor arrivals in package tours increased by 2.0% year-on-year to 3,125,315. In June 2011, Macao residents travelling outbound in package tours decreased by 15.6% year-on-year to 18,565. The most popular tour itineraries are Mainland China (67.7% of total), Thailand (8.8%) and Republic of Korea (6.1%), with notable increase being observed in outbound residents travelling to Thailand in package tour. In the first half year of 2011, outbound residents in package tours decreased by 1.1% year-on-year to 109,362. Meanwhile, outbound residents travelling under own arrangements using services of travel agencies increased by 14.6% year-on-year to 49,270; the main destinations were Mainland China (37.7% of total); Hong Kong (22.6%); and Taiwan, China (19.0%). In the first half year of 2011, outbound residents travelling under such arrangements went up by 24.3% year-on-year to 270,131. At the end of June 2011, total number of available guest rooms of hotels and guest-houses increased by 2,116 (+10.8%) year-on-year to 21,676 rooms, with that of 5-star hotels accounting for 62.6% of the total. Hotels and guest-houses received 704,464 guests in June 2011, up by 16.9% year-on-year, with the majority coming from Mainland China (51.8% of total) and Hong Kong (20.4%). The average length of stay of guests decreased by 0.08 night to 1.4 nights. The average occupancy rate of hotels and guest-houses was 82.5%, up by 6.7 percentage points year-on-year. Average occupancy rate of hotels stood at 83.1%, with 4-star hotels leading at 88.3%. Hotel guests increased by 5.0% year-on-year to 3,988,791 in the first half year of 2011; average occupancy rate of hotels and guest-houses stood at 82.0%, up by 3.3 percentage points compared with 78.6% a year earlier. In the first half year of 2011, visitor-guests of hotels and guest-houses accounted for 61.7% of the total number of tourists (overnight visitors), higher than 60.9% in the same period of 2010.
