Macao visitor arrivals up 5.6 pct in Q1

MACAO, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Macao's tourist arrivals in the first quarter increased 5.6 percent year-on-year, with overnight visitors rising by almost 12 percent, the special administrative region (SAR)'s statistics service said on Tuesday.

Latest report from Macao SAR Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) said in the first quarter of 2017, visitor arrivals totaled 7.87 million, up by 5.6 percent year-on-year; overnight visitors (3.93 million) rose by 12.1 percent while same-day visitors (3.94 million) edged down by 0.2 percent.

Visitors from the mainland (5.31 million), South Korea (229,605) increased by 7.6 percent and 32 percent respectively; while those from the Hong Kong SAR (1,52 million) dropped by 2.5 percent.

Moreover, visitors from the United States (44,122) and Canada (19,128) in the first quarter increased than last year, while those from Australia (21,822) and Britain (12,928) decreased.

The DSEC added that visitor arrivals in March increased by 5.7 percent year-on-year to 2.5 million, up slightly by 0.2 percent month-to-month. Overnight visitors rose by 13.9 percent year-on-year to 1.34 million last month while same-day visitors dropped by 2.4 percent to 1.16 million.

Visitors from the mainland jumped by 11.5 percent year-on-year to 1.66 million in March, with those traveling under the Individual Visit Scheme (741,199) rising by 18.4 percent. Mainland visitors came mainly from Guangdong (668,681), Hunan (77,639) and Fujian (66,037) provinces.

Visitors from South Korea (65,393) and Japan (33,158) in March slumped by 56.9 percent and 19.2 percent year-on-year respectively, while those from the Hong Kong SAR (492,215) sank by 12.6 percent. Visitors from the United States (16,203) and Canada (7,519) registered increase whereas those from Australia (6,720) and Britain (4,798) decreased.