Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitors in package tours surged by 51.5% year-on-year to 794,636 in December 2011. Visitors from Mainland China (574,427); Taiwan, China (48,071); and Hong Kong (40,203) soared by 57.7%, 135.8% and 13.8% respectively. For the whole year of 2011, visitors in package tours reached 7,307,438, up by 27.2% year-on-year. In December 2011, Macao residents travelling outbound in package tours decreased by 12.9% year-on-year to 24,119. The most popular tour itineraries were Mainland China (69.9% of total); Taiwan, China (6.6%); and the Republic of Korea (6.0%). In 2011, outbound residents in package tours decreased by 3.8% year-on-year to 242,997. Meanwhile, outbound residents travelling under own arrangements using services of travel agencies increased substantially by 40.4% year-on-year to 64,167; the main destinations were Mainland China (52.9% of total); Hong Kong (18.0%); and Taiwan, China (16.0%). For the whole year of 2011, outbound residents travelling under such arrangements increased by 29.7% year-on-year to 648,739. At the end of December 2011, number of available guest rooms of hotels and guest-houses totalled 22,356, up by 2,265 rooms (+11.3%) year-on-year, with that of 5-star hotels accounting for 63.5% of the total. Hotels and guest-houses received a new record of 820,163 guests in December 2011, an increase of 12.7% year-on-year, with the majority coming from Mainland China (54.9% of total) and Hong Kong (17.8%). The average length of stay increased by 0.05 night to 1.5 nights. The average occupancy rate of hotels and guest-houses stood at 89.7%, up by 2.0 percentage points year-on-year. Average occupancy rate of hotels was 90.3%, with 4-star and 5-star hotels reaching 93.6% and 90.2% respectively. Total number of guests increased by 11.0% year-on-year to 8,612,127 in 2011; average occupancy rate of hotels and guest-houses was 84.1%, up by 4.3 percentage points year-on-year. For the whole year of 2011, visitor-guests accounted for 62.3% of the total number of tourists (overnight visitors), higher than 61.1% in 2010.
