Group Tourists to Macao Shoot Up in First Eight MonthsThe number of visitors to the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) in tour groups exceeded 1.06 million in the first eight months this year, which soared 50.6 percent over the same period of 1999.In August only, the number of group tourists rose by 19.2 percent to reach 131,756. About 60.3 percent of them came from the inland areas of China and 20.7 percent from the Taiwan region, according to the latest figures released by the Statistics and Census Services of the Macao SAR government. On the other hand, 23,908 Macao residents, out of a population of some 430,000, traveled to other places in tour groups in August, an increase of 37.2 percent over the same month of last year. The most favored destination was China's inland areas, which attracted 77.7 percent of the total. The other two favored destinations were Thailand and Japan. During the first eight months of this year as a whole, the number of Macao residents traveling to other places in tour groups rose 19.2 percent over the same period of last year. |
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