Tourist Groups to Macao Rise Sharply in MarchThe number of visitors to Macao in tour groups was 143,366 in March this year, a sharp increase of 72. 5 percent over the same month of 1999, the latest official figures show.Nearly 70.9 percent of the visitors came from the inland areas of China, about 16 percent from Taiwan, and 4.3 percent from Hong Kong, according to figures released by the Statistics and Census Services of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government. In the first quarter of the year, the number of visitors to Macao in tour groups exceeded 379,521, a rise of 51 percent over the same period of last year. On the other hand, 7,364 Macao residents, out of a population of some 430,000, traveled to other places in tour groups in March, an increase of 34.5 percent over March 1999. The inland areas of China remained the most favorite destination of travel for Macao residents. In March, 73.5 percent of the tourists went to the inland areas. In the first three months of this year as a whole, the number of Macao residents traveling to other places in tour groups dropped 4.6 percent from the same period of 1999. |
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