Group Tourists to Macao Increase SharplyThe number of visitors to the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) in tour groups was 932,103 in the first seven months this year, which soared 56.5 percent over the same period of 1999.In July only, the number of group tourists rose by 55.9 percent to reach 136,056. About 61.6 percent of them came from the inland areas of China and 24 percent from Taiwan region, according to the figures released Wednesday by the Statistics and Census Services of the Macao SAR government. On the other hand, 12,049 Macao residents, out of a population of some 430,000, traveled to other places in tour groups in July, an increase of 29.8 percent over the same month of last year. The most favored destination was China's inland areas, which attracted 64 percent of the total. The other two favored destinations were Thailand and Japan. During the first seven months of this year, the number of Macao residents traveling to other places in tour groups rose 14.3 percent over the same period of last year. |
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