Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that Macao registered 450,017 visitor arrivals in package tours in April 2008, up by 27.2% from a year earlier. Visitors from Mainland China (301,892) and Southeast Asia (45,373) surged by 24.1% and 146.8% year-on-year, while those from Hong Kong (31,339) dropped by 15.6%. In the first four months of 2008, visitors arrived in package tours grew by 16.9% over the same period of 2007 to 1,647,576. The number of Macao residents travelling outbound in package tours in April 2008 decreased by 14.6% year-on-year to 17,084. Mainland China (75.7%), Taiwan, China (6.0%) and Thailand (5.8%) were three of the most popular tour itineraries. In the first four months of 2008, Macao residents travelling in package tours rose by 9.7% over the same period of 2007 to 70,359. Meanwhile, 29,105 residents travelled outbound under individual arrangements using services provided by travel agencies, up by 27.5% over April 2007. Hong Kong (39.8%), Mainland China (27.4%) and Taiwan, China (10.6%) were the major destinations. In the first four months of 2008, Macao residents travelled under such arrangements rose by 19.6% year-on-year to 120,741. At the end of April 2008, the total number of guest rooms available in the hotel sector grew by 3,146 (+24.1%) from a year earlier to 16,195 rooms. In April 2008, a total of 544,467 guests checked into hotels and similar establishments, representing a year-on-year increase of 9.0%; the majority of the guests came from Mainland China (50.5%) and Hong Kong (22.0%). Attributable to the rising number of guest rooms, the average hotel occupancy rate dropped by 3.8 percentage points to 75.4%, with 4-star hotels leading at 82.4%; in addition, the average length of stay of hotel guests extended by 0.2 night to 1.3 nights. Total number of hotel guests reached 2,153,419 in the first four months of 2008, up by 17.4% over the same period of 2007. In the first four months of 2008, visitor-guests staying in hotels accounted for 43.1% of the total number of tourists, up from 42.5% in the same quarter of 2007.
