Results of the Package Tours and Hotel Occupancy Rate for May 2006

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals in package tours totalled 237,461 in May 2006, up 12.3% year-on-year. Visitors from Mainland China (193,436) grew 23.3%; however, those from Taiwan, China (14,288) and Hong Kong (6,220) decreased 38.0% and 28.6% respectively over May 2005. In the first five months of 2006, visitor arrivals in package tours surged 21.8% over the same period of 2005 to 1,245,285. Number of Macao residents travelling in package tours was 19,868 in May 2006, a year-on-year decrease of 19.1%. Mainland China; Thailand; and Taiwan, China were the three more popular tour itineraries, which accounted for 77.5%, 6.1% and 5.3% of the total respectively. In the first five months of 2006, Macao residents (108,875) travelling in package tours grew 10.9% compared with the same period of 2005. Meanwhile, 26,403 residents travelled under own arrangements using services provided by the travel agencies, an increase of 6.6% over May 2005; Mainland China (40.2%), Hong Kong (19.6%) and Taiwan, China (16.5%) were the major destinations. In the first five months of 2006, Macao residents travelled under such arrangements surged 28.9% to 143,410 compared with the corresponding period of 2005. At the end of May 2006, number of guest rooms available in the hotel industry increased by 871 (+8.3%) over May 2005 to 11,325 rooms. In addition, a total of 343,016 guests checked into hotels and similar establishments, up 4.2% compared with May 2005. The average hotel occupancy rate was 65.4%, representing a decrease of 1.6 percentage points; the highest average was in the 3-star hotels, at 73.6%. The hotel guests stayed an average of 1.15 nights, which fell slightly by 0.03 night compared with May 2005. The majority of the guests came from Mainland China (58.5%), Hong Kong (22.3%) and Taiwan, China (2.9%). In the first five months of 2006, number of hotel guests increased 15.4% over 2005 to 1,812,098. In the first five months of 2006, hotel guests (excluding Macao residents) accounted for 40.5% of the total number of tourists, which was lower than the 41.6% recorded in the same period of 2005.