Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals in package tours in August 2011 soared by 49.4% year-on-year to a record high of 713,383. Visitors from Mainland China (513,094); Taiwan, China (53,358); Hong Kong (33,356) and the Republic of Korea (30,532) surged by 46.6%, 124.2%, 28.8% and 113.6% respectively. On the contrary, visitors from Japan (20,169) decreased by 16.2%. In the first eight months of 2011, visitor arrivals in package tours went up by 12.7% year-on-year to 4,509,362. In August 2011, Macao residents travelling outbound in package tours decreased by 16.8% year-on-year to 25,846. The most popular tour itineraries were Mainland China (64.3% of total), Thailand (8.6%) and Malaysia (6.0%). In the first eight months of 2011, outbound residents in package tours decreased by 3.1% year-on-year to 161,635. Meanwhile, outbound residents travelling under own arrangements using services of travel agencies surged by 33.1% year-on-year to 67,077; the main destinations were Mainland China (49.6% of total); Hong Kong (19.9%); and Taiwan, China (15.0%). In the first eight months of 2011, outbound residents travelling under such arrangements went up by 26.6% year-on-year to 402,226. At the end of August 2011, total number of available guest rooms of hotels and guest-houses increased by 2,384 (+12.1%) year-on-year to 22,151 rooms, with that of 5-star hotels accounting for 63.4% of the total. Hotels and guest-houses received 809,120 guests in August 2011, up by 16.3% year-on-year, with the majority coming from Mainland China (53.9% of total) and Hong Kong (21.8%). The average length of stay of guests decreased by 0.05 night to 1.4 nights. The average occupancy rate of hotels and guest-houses achieved 88.3%, up by 6.0 percentage points year-on-year. Average occupancy rate of hotels reached 88.9%, with 4-star hotels leading at 92.8%. Hotel guests increased by 8.6% year-on-year to 5,593,738 in the first eight months of 2011; average occupancy rate of hotels and guest-houses stood at 83.7%, up by 4.4 percentage points from a year earlier. In the first eight months of 2011, visitor-guests accounted for 61.1% of the total number of tourists (overnight visitors), higher than 60.2% in the same period of 2010.
