The latest figures from the Statistics and Census Services show that Macao hosted a total of 987,200 tourists last month and thosefrom the inland made up nearly half -- 47.4 percent -- of the total.

Hong Kong has long been Macao's largest tourist market and in January tourist arrivals from it edged up 2.4 percent in number toaccount for 37.5 percent of the total for Macao. Taiwan province tourists ranked the 3rd place, reaching 9.6 percent of the total. 　　

Industry insiders note that the city's tourism industry has benefited greatly from a sharp rise of travel agencies allowed by the China National Tourism Administration to operate the SAR-boundtours.

Meanwhile, many inlanders took advantage of Macao's sound weather in January to visit the SAR upon the arrival of the Chinese lunar New Year, on Feb. 1.

The inland tourist boom was not only reflected in number, but in amount of money spending. According to statistics, visitors from the inland were again the most generous group with per capita spending in Macao amounting to 2,560 patacas (320 US dollars) in the last quarter of 2002.

This was a far cry from the average of 1,570 patacas (196.25 dollars) for all visitors to the city in the three months, which represents a year-on-year rise of 17 percent.

The inland tourists poured much of their money into shopping, catering and hotel accommodation, excluding spending in casinos. At stores, they were often seen snapping up jewelry, timepieces and apparel and cloth.

The Macao Government Tourist Office has selected dozens of so-called "ground-receiving" travel agencies with sound reputation to host inland tourists, intensified training on tour guides and kept cracking down on illegal business in the market.

Continuos rise of consumption of inland tourists have pushed forward retail sales and related tourist service industries in Macao, tourism authorities.

Macao's tourism revenues, however, could be even more if an ideal shopping environment is presented to visitors, market watchers note. Compared with the nearby Hong Kong SAR, Macao's stores are relatively smaller in size and lack commodities.

Currently, the Macao Government Tourist Office is seeking to make tourists stay longer and spend more as the number of same-dayvisitors still reached 44.2 percent of the total in January this year.

According to statistics, tourists to the SAR hit a record of more than ten million in 2001 and the figure for last year made another leap to 11.53 million.

(Xinhua News Agency February 21, 2003)