Macao logged 425,787 visitor arrivals in package tours in May this year, significantly increasing by 47.2 percent year-on-year, according to the latest figures released on Monday by the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) of the Special Administration Region.

The figures showed that visitors from the Chinese Mainland (278,879) and Hong Kong (32,068) grew by 47.5 percent and 45.7 percent year-on-year respectively in the period, while those from Southeast Asia (50,074) soared by 216.8 percent.

During the first five months of this year, visitors arrived in package tours rose by 22.1 percent over the same period of 2007 to2,073,363, according to the DSEC.

Meanwhile, the number of Macao residents traveling outbound in package tours in May increased by 20.1 percent year-on-year to 16,057, with the Chinese mainland (69.5 percent), Thailand (8.2 percent) and Japan (6.9 percent) being the three most popular touritineraries, according to the DSEC.

Local residents traveling in package tours rose by 11.5 percentover the same period of last year to 86,416 between January and May this year.

(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2008)