Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that Macao registered 420,786 visitor arrivals in package tours in March 2008, up by 16.6% from a year earlier. Visitors from Mainland China (305,008) recorded a year-on-year growth of 22.2%, while those from Hong Kong (23,837) and Taiwan, China (19,111) dropped by 26.0% and 39.0% respectively. In the first quarter of 2008, visitors arrived in package tours grew by 13.5% over the same quarter of 2007 to 1,197,559. In light of the Easter holidays, the number of Macao residents travelling in package tours in March 2008 surged by 64.5% year-on-year to 20,672. Mainland China, Thailand and Japan were the three most popular tour itineraries, which accounted for 77.9%, 5.9% and 5.0% of the total respectively. In the first quarter of 2008, Macao residents travelling in package tours rose by 20.8% over the same quarter of 2007 to 53,275. Meanwhile, 28,888 residents travelled under individual arrangements using services provided by travel agencies, up by 4.2% over March 2007. Hong Kong (41.7%), Mainland China (26.3%) and Taiwan, China (11.3%) were the major destinations. In the first quarter of 2008, Macao residents travelled under such arrangements rose by 17.4% compared with the same quarter of 2007 to 91,636. At the end of March 2008, the total number of guest rooms available in the hotel sector increased by 3,146 (+24.1%) from a year earlier to 16,195 rooms. In March 2008, a total of 563,029 guests checked into hotels and similar establishments, representing a year-on-year growth of 18.0%; the majority of the guests came from Mainland China (47.3%) and Hong Kong (25.3%). The average hotel occupancy rate dropped slightly by 0.4 percentage point to 75.7%, with 4-star hotels leading at 80.1%; in addition, the average length of stay of hotel guests extended by 0.1 night to 1.3 nights. Total number of hotel guests reached 1,608,952 in the first quarter of 2008, up by 20.6% over the same quarter of 2007. In the first quarter of 2008, visitor-guests staying in hotels accounted for 42.8% of the total number of tourists, up from 41.7% in the same quarter of 2007.
