Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals in package tours totalled 323,111 in December 2006, corresponding to a notable increase of 34.0% year-on-year. Among them, visitors from Mainland China (228,245) increased by 14.7% when those from Hong Kong (37,756) and Southeast Asia (21,765) recorded remarkable growths of 225.5% and 290.4% respectively. In 2006, total visitor arrivals in package tours grew 9.3% over 2005 to 2,925,724, while those from Mainland China accounted for 78.4% of the total.

Number of Macao residents travelling in package tours in December 2006 was 27,109, a slight increase of 0.1% year-on-year. Mainland China; Thailand; and Taiwan, China were the three most popular tour itineraries, which accounted for 76.8%, 5.5% and 4.4% of the total respectively. In 2006, Macao residents (272,444) travelling in package tours went down 7.6% compared with 2005.

Meanwhile, 39,577 residents travelled under own arrangements using services provided by travel agencies, up 4.4% over December 2005. Hong Kong (43.8%); Mainland China (26.8%); and Taiwan, China (12.5%) were the major destinations. In 2006, Macao residents travelled under such arrangements increased 11.5% over 2005 to 372,159.

At the end of December 2006, number of guest rooms available in the hotel industry registered an increase of 2,146 rooms (+19.8%) over December 2005 to 12,978 rooms.

In December 2006, a total of 481,868 guests checked into hotels and similar establishments, representing a year-on-year growth of 24.7%. In addition, the average hotel occupancy rate rose by 2.0 percentage points to 78.1%, with 4-star hotels leading at 87.0%; the average length of stay of hotel guests increased by 0.03 night to 1.17 nights. The majority of the guests came from Mainland China (52.4%); Hong Kong (28.8%); and Taiwan, China (2.7%). In 2006, total number of hotel guests surged 13.6% over 2005 to 4,680,854; the average hotel occupancy rate rose by 1.3 percentage points compared with 2005, at 72.3%.

In 2006, hotel guests (excluding Macao residents) accounted for 41.5% of the total number of tourists, which was lower than the 43.3% recorded in 2005.

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