Macao's tourism industry has entered a new phase of growth and is moving towards diversification, Manuel Costa Antunes, director of Macao Government Tourist Office, said on Monday.

The official said while addressing the opening ceremony of the Office's Annual Marketing Meeting that in the first five months, the visitor arrivals exceeded 10 million, seeing a year-on-year rise of 21.45 percent.

The international market arrivals from Southeast Asia have been showing exceptionally strong performance, indicating a healthy progress towards diversification of the sources of markets, Antunes said.

Macao, a city with a population of merely 500,000, has in recent years become a new tourism destination in Asia.

(Xinhua News Agency June 26, 2007)