Group Tourists to Macao Increase Sharply in First Half YearThe number of visitors to the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) in tour groups was 796,047 in the first half of this year, a sharp increase of 56.6 percent over the same period last year, latest official figures show.In June only, the number of group tourists rose by 49.7 percent to reach 120,093. About 59 percent of the visitors came from the inland areas of China and 24.5 percent from Taiwan, according to figures released Wednesday by the Statistics and Census Services of the Macao SAR government. On the other hand, 11,449 Macao residents, out of a population of some 430,000, traveled to other places in tour groups in June, an increase of 34.2 percent over the same month of 1999. The three most favored destinations of tour for Macao residents were China's inland areas, Thailand and Japan. During the first six months of this year as a whole, the number of Macao residents traveling to other places in tour groups rose 11.7 percent over the same period of last year. |
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