Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals totalled 2,587,147 in May 2008, a year-on-year increase of 22.0%. Visitors from Mainland China (1,549,269) and Hong Kong (641,661) rose by 30.1% and 3.1% respectively, and those from Southeast Asia (151,490) surged notably by 64.5%. Same-day visitors took up 53.7% of the total arrivals, at 1,388,482. The majority of the visitors came from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, which accounted for 59.9%, 24.8% and 5.9% of the total respectively. Among the Mainland visitors, 42.5% (658,454) travelled to Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme. In the first five months of 2008, visitor arrivals reached 12,582,153, up by 17.4% year-on-year. Visitors from Mainland China (7,417,320) and Southeast Asia increased by 25.5% and 59.8% respectively, but those from Hong Kong decreased by 1.7%. Furthermore, same-day visitors shared 52.9% of the total arrivals, at 6,657,441. Analyzed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by sea went up by 9.4% over the first five months of 2007 to 3,924,918. Among them, 3,519,611 arrived at the Outer Harbour (+5.0%), with 57.4% from Hong Kong and 23.2% from Mainland China. Visitor arrivals by land grew by 21.5% to 7,939,806. Visitors arriving through the Border Gate increased by 15.4% to 7,507,149 and the majority were visitors from Mainland China (79.4%) and Hong Kong (14.3%). In addition, visitor arrivals by air totalled 717,429, up by 20.8% over the first five months of 2007. Visitors arriving at the Macao International Airport rose by 19.5% to 703,090, with those from Taiwan, China (35.0%), Southeast Asia (31.1%) and Mainland China (21.4%) as the major users.
