Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals in package tours increased by 18.8% year-on-year to 361,403 in September 2009, attributable to a 35.0% increase of Mainland visitors (241,481); besides, those from Japan (31,450); Taiwan, China (22,930); and Indonesia (9,971) rose notably by 81.6%, 14.7% and 125.8% respectively, while those from Hong Kong (17,410) decreased markedly by 52.5%. In the first three quarters of 2009, visitor arrivals in package tours dropped by 6.1% year-on-year to 3,284,659. In September 2009, the number of Macao residents travelling outbound in package tours saw continuous decrease and fell by 25.3% year-on-year to 11,821, with Mainland China (76.3% of total); Japan (5.4%); and Taiwan, China (4.7%) being the most popular tour itineraries. In the first nine months of 2009, residents travelling outbound in package tours dropped by 14.9% year-on-year to 144,792. Meanwhile, the number of residents travelled outbound under own arrangements using services of travel agencies surged by 42.1% year-on-year to 43,902 and the main destinations were Hong Kong (41.4% of total); Mainland China (31.5%); and Taiwan, China (11.7%). In the first nine months of 2009, outbound residents travelling under such arrangements up by 15.2% year-on-year to 329,728. At the end of September 2009, total number of guest rooms available at the hotel sector increased by 1,354 (+8.1%) from a year earlier to 18,146 rooms. In September 2009, a total of 543,182 guests checked into hotels and guest-houses, up by 14.7% year-on-year, with the majority coming from Mainland China (47.2% of total) and Hong Kong (23.2%). The average hotel occupancy rate rose by 5.5 percentage points year-on-year to 72.3%, with 3-star hotels leading at 75.1%. The average length of stay of hotel guests increased by 0.03 night to 1.5 nights. The cumulative number of hotel guests decreased slightly by 0.2% in the first three quarters of 2009 to 4,805,090. In the first nine months of 2009, visitor-guests of hotels accounted for 61.1% of the total number of tourists, up from 57.1% in the corresponding period of 2008.
