Visitor arrivals in package tours totalled 392,093 in February 2007, up by 63.3% year-on-year. In view of Chinese New Year Holidays, visitors from Mainland China (284,196) increased by 45.1%; those from Hong Kong (44,999) and Taiwan, China (21,986) reported remarkable growths of 328.4% and 102.8% respectively compared with February 2006. In the first two months of 2007, visitors arrived in package tours grew by 63.3% over the same period of 2006 to 719,704.

In February, the number of Macao residents travelling in package tours rose by 36.7% year-on-year to 20,937. Mainland China, Thailand and Japan were the three most popular tour itineraries, which accounted for 75.9%, 6.5% and 4.1% of the total respectively. In the first two months of 2007, Macao residents travelling in package tours dropped by 28.9% over the same period of 2006 to 31,540.

Meanwhile, 26,757 residents travelled under own arrangements using services provided by travel agencies, a slightly decrease of 1.2% over February 2006. Hong Kong (43.9%); Mainland China (29.2%); and Taiwan, China (11.6%) were the major destinations. In the first two months of 2007, Macao residents travelled under such arrangements dropped by 14.8% compared with the same period of 2006 to 50,364.

At the end of February 2007, number of guest rooms available in the hotel industry registered an increase of 2,022 rooms (+18.3%) year-on-year to 13,063 rooms.

In February 2007, a total of 426,186 guests checked into hotels and similar establishments, representing a year-on-year growth of 25.3%. The average hotel occupancy rate grew by 2.0 percentage points to 74.1%, with 4-star hotels leading at 81.3%. The average length of stay of hotel guests increased by 0.04 night to 1.2 nights. The majority of the guests came from Mainland China (53.5%) and Hong Kong (27.9%). Number of hotel guests totalled 855,892 in the first two months of 2007, up by 28.2% over 2006.

In the first two months of 2007, hotel guests (excluding Macao residents) accounted for 40.4% of the total number of tourists, higher than the 38.7% recorded in 2006.

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