Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals in package tours soared by 46.1% year-on-year to 670,664 in July 2011. Visitors from Mainland China (489,503); Taiwan, China (46,776); Republic of Korea (31,066) and Hong Kong (28,839) surged by 51.2%, 90.8%, 151.1% and 19.3% respectively. On the contrary, visitors from Japan (14,879) decreased by 38.2%. In the first seven months of 2011, visitor arrivals in package tours went up by 7.7% year-on-year to 3,795,979. In July 2011, Macao residents travelling outbound in package tours increased by 5.3% year-on-year to 26,427. The most popular tour itineraries are Mainland China (72.3% of total), Thailand (7.1%) and Malaysia (5.0%). In the first seven months of 2011, outbound residents in package tours increased slightly by 0.1% year-on-year to 135,789. Meanwhile, outbound residents travelling under own arrangements using services of travel agencies rose by 30.0% year-on-year to 65,018; the main destinations were Mainland China (47.3% of total); Hong Kong (20.5%); and Taiwan, China (15.2%). In the first seven months of 2011, outbound residents travelling under such arrangements went up by 25.4% year-on-year to 335,149. At the end of July 2011, total number of available guest rooms of hotels and guest-houses increased by 2,080 (+10.5%) year-on-year to 21,804 rooms, with that of 5-star hotels accounting for 62.8% of the total. Hotels and guest-houses received 795,827 guests in July 2011, up by 21.5% year-on-year, with the majority coming from Mainland China (54.2% of total) and Hong Kong (21.5%). The average length of stay of guests decreased by 0.07 night to 1.4 nights. The average occupancy rate of hotels and guest-houses notched up a record high of 88.2%, up by 8.2 percentage points year-on-year. Average occupancy rate of hotels reached 88.9%, with 4-star hotels leading at 93.1%. Hotel guests increased by 7.4% year-on-year to 4,784,618 in the first seven months of 2011; average occupancy rate of hotels and guest-houses stood at 82.9%, up by 4.1 percentage points from a year earlier. In the first seven months of 2011, visitor-guests accounted for 61.5% of the total number of tourists (overnight visitors), higher than 60.5% in the same period of 2010.
