Macao registered 2,819,196 visitor arrivals in package tours in the first seven months of 2008, an increase of 23.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the figures released Friday by the city's Statistics and Census Service.

In July this year, some 406,346 visitors arrived in package tours, up by 27 percent year-on-year, the figures showed. Visitors from the Chinese mainland (282,412) and Southeast Asia (36,774) grew notably by 29 percent and 108.6 percent year-on-year, while those from Taiwan (24,978) decreased by 17 percent.

However, the number of Macao residents traveling outbound in package tours in July decreased by 7.5 percent year-on-year to 19,797, with mainland (61.5 percent), Thailand (10.1 percent) and Japan (8.1 percent) being the three most popular tour itineraries, according to the DSEC.

In the first seven months of this year, Macao residents traveling in package tours rose by 5.9 percent over the same period of 2007 to 126,392, the DSEC said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 16, 2008)