Visitor Arrivals for August 2009

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the total number of visitor and non-resident arrivals reached 2,621,326 in August 2009; visitor arrivals for August 2009 increased by 6.4% year-on-year to 2,065,336. Analyzed by place of residence, visitors from Mainland China increased by 8.9% year-on-year to 1,050,357 (50.9% of visitor arrivals), with 499,448 travelling to Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme, down by 15.3% from August 2008 (589,575). Visitors from Hong Kong (666,700); Taiwan, China (125,931); and Japan (37,505) rose by 2.9%, 12.6% and 27.1% respectively; however, those from the Republic of Korea (25,727) and Malaysia (21,137) decreased by 15.4% and 13.9%. Same-day visitors (1,042,673) accounted for 50.5% of visitor arrivals, with 550,129 coming from Mainland China. The cumulative visitor arrivals totalled 14,191,418 in the first eight months of 2009, down by 9.6% year-on-year. Visitors from Mainland China (7,030,457); Hong Kong (4,574,626); Taiwan, China (860,662); and Malaysia (199,952) fell by 14.5%, 1.6%, 4.2% and 28.7% respectively; however, those from Japan (232,250) registered an increase of 4.6%. Cumulative number of same-day visitors accounted for 53.1% of total visitor arrivals, at 7,536,321. Analyzed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by sea totalled 5,692,080 in the first eight months of 2009, down by 7.3% year-on-year. Visitors arriving at the Outer Harbour decreased by 24.6% to 3,950,737, while those arriving at the Provisional Ferry Terminal in Taipa surged by 143.8% to 1,555,490. Visitor arrivals by land dropped by 11.7% year-on-year to 7,464,425 in the first eight months of 2009; those arriving through the Border Gate totalled 6,932,085 and the majority were visitors from Mainland China (76.8%) and Hong Kong (15.1%). Visitor arrivals by air went down by 7.2% year-on-year to 1,034,913 in the first eight months of 2009. Visitors arriving at the Macao International Airport fell by 7.1% to 1,014,085, with the majority coming from Taiwan, China (39.4%), Mainland China (24.5%), Malaysia (7.7%) and Thailand (7.0%).