Macao logged 420,786 visitor arrivals in package tours in March this year, increasing by 16.6 percent year-on-year, according to the figures released Tuesday by Macao's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) Tuesday.

The figures showed that the majority of the package-tour visitors came from the Chinese mainland, which grew by 22.2 percent year- on-year to 305,008 in March, while those from Hong Kong (23,837) and China's Taiwan (19,111) dropped by 26 percent and 39 percent respectively.

Meanwhile, the number of Macao residents traveling in package tours surged by 64.5 percent year-on-year to 20,672 during the Easter holidays in March, and the Chinese mainland, Thailand and Japan were the three most popular tour destinations for local citizens, which accounted for 77.9, 5.9 and 5 percent of the total respectively, according to DSEC.

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2008)