Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that total visitor arrivals recorded a 1.5% year-on-year decrease to 2,130,977 in February 2012; same-day visitors (1,136,136) accounted for 53.3% of the total. The average length of stay of visitors decreased by 0.1 day year-on-year to 0.9 day, with that of overnight visitors and same-day visitors being 1.8 days and 0.2 day respectively. Analyzed by place of residence, visitors from Mainland China increased by 6.7% year-on-year to 1,285,266 (60.3% of the total), mostly from Guangdong Province (635,835), Fujian Province (67,880) and Shanghai (40,111). Mainland visitors travelling to Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) totalled 514,095, down by 11.4% year-on-year. The average length of stay of Mainland visitors was 1.0 day, with that of overnight visitors at 2.0 days. Visitors from Hong Kong (520,144); and Taiwan, China (83,357) decreased by 20.9% and 3.4% respectively year-on-year. However, those from the Republic of Korea (45,441) and Japan (40,129) increased by 15.5% and 25.1% respectively; long haul visitors from the Americas (20,853), Europe (18,926) and Oceania (9,386) also recorded increase of 4.4%, 8.6% and 14.7% year-on-year. In the first two months of 2012, visitor arrivals increased by 8.3% year-on-year to 4,592,617. Visitors from Mainland China (2,780,143), the Republic of Korea (91,617) and Japan (71,798) increased by 14.7%, 12.5% and 5.2% respectively; in addition, visitors from Russia (+97.9%), the Philippines (+20.0%), India (+15.7%) and Australia (+13.2%) also registered noticeable increase year-on-year. Meanwhile, those from Hong Kong (1,158,176) and Taiwan, China (168,903) decreased by 2.4% and 5.3% respectively. Same-day visitors accounted for 54.6% of the total visitor arrivals, at 2,507,226.
