Macao saw 388,796 visitor arrivals in package tours in January this year, up 22.8 percent year-on- year, according to official statistics released on Wednesday.

Figures released by Macao's Statistic and Census Service (SCS) showed that package tour visitors from the Chinese Mainland (282, 506), Hong Kong (22,604) and Taiwan (18,079) in January this year recorded year-on-year growth of 21.4 percent, 13.2 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively.

The increasing number of tourists has also boosted Macao's hotel room occupancy in January, as a total of 562,547 guests checked into hotels in the city, representing a year-on-year growth of 30.9 percent, the SCS said.

In addition, the statistics also showed that the average hotel occupancy rate went up by one percentage point to 72.7 percent, while the total number of guest rooms available in the city's hotel sector grew by 24.8 percent year-on-year to 16,126 rooms.

(Xinhua News Agency, March 13, 2008)