Macao received over 150,000 visitors from Australia in 2008, a significant growth of 27 percent over 2007, the Macao Special Administrative Region Government Tourist Office (MGTO) said on Monday.

The SAR logged over 30 million visitor arrivals last year, an increase of 11 percent year-on-year, with the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan continuing to be the three largest visitor source markets, according to figures from the MGTO.

To attract more visitors from other nations, the MGTO has launched a series of promotion events and activities in various countries. As part of its effort, Macao will receive two "Wonders of Asia and Africa" luxury tours from Australia within a month this year. Both tours will stay in Macao for four days. The tours were operated by the Captain's Choice, the leading luxury tour operator in Australia, and the tour groups on chartered flights only cater respectively to 57 and 65 visitors from Australia.

Last March, the operator has organized a similar chartered flight tour group to Macao and was well received, according to the MGTO. Currently, there are four flights from Macao to Sydney every week.

(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2009)