Macao reported a double-digit growthin the number of tourist arrivals from January to July, led by huge influx of visitors from China's other areas.

According to the latest figures from the Statistics and Census Services, tourist arrivals in the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) jumped 10.8 percent to 6.49 million in the first seven months of this year.

Hong Kong remained the largest tourist source for Macao, sending 3.02 million visitors to the city, but the figure fell 1.2percent on an annual basis.

China's inland was catching up, providing slightly more than one-third of tourist arrivals in Macao, while Taiwan tourists madeup 13.7 percent.

Macao's tourism industry benefited greatly from a sharp rise oftravel agencies allowed by the China National Tourism Administration to manage Macao- and Hong Kong-bound tours.

The Macao Government Tourist Office is seeking to make touristsstay longer and spend more as the number of same-day visitors still reached 2.72 million or 41.9 percent of the total in the first seven months.

In 2001, tourists to Macao hit a record of more than ten million.

( Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2002)