The MSAR welcomed some 558,800 visitors on package tours in the month of February, a slight decrease of 1.5 percent year-on-year despite surging increases in the number of those from South Korea and Japan.
The latest official data of the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) shows the number of package tour visitors from South Korea registered a notable increase of 54.4 percent year-on-year to 48,900 for the month, while that from India jumped by 19.2 percent year-on-year to 15,000.
Nevertheless, visitors on package tours from Mainland China dropped by 5.4 per cent year-on-year to 414,000, while that from Taiwan also went down by 9.3 per cent year-on-year to 35,900.
For the first two months of the year, the number of visitors on package tours totalled 1.09 million, representing a decrease of 4 percent year-on-year.
Outbound travels up
While the MSAR received fewer package tour visitors, local residents travelling outbound recorded a notable increase.
According to the DSEC data, outbound residents using services of travel agencies rose by 9.3 percent year-on-year to 114,000, while those travelling on package tours also increased by 12.1 percent to 48,000.
Mainland China was the most popular destination for local residents during the month, of which the number to the country surged 21.7 percent year-on-year to 67,100.
But the countries that received highest growth in the number of Macau outbound residents were South Korea and Thailand, which soared by 76.6 per cent and 78.9 percent year-on-year to 9,200 and 3,500, respectively.
Meanwhile, the number of residents travelling to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan went down by 22.2 percent, 20.6 percent and 35 percent year-on-year, amounting to 15,700, 9,800 and 3,300, respectively.
Accumulatively, a total of 130,000 outbound travels were recorded for the first two months of the year, which represented an increase of 20.1 percent year-on-year. In particular, those to South Korea and Thailand nearly doubled to 19,400 and 7,200, as compared to the same period of last year.
More hotel guests
On the other hand, the official data shows local hotels and guesthouses received 949,100 guests during the second month of the year, which is an increase of 8.1 percent year-on-year. Average hotel occupancy rate rose 5.7 percentage points to 84.9 per cent.
A total of 108 hotels and guesthouses were operating in the territory during the month, providing a total of 36,000 guest rooms, which is up by 13.2 percent year-on-year.
Among all hotel rooms, five-star ones accounted for 60.2 percent of the total, amounting to 22,000, a growth of 7 percent year-on-year.
In terms of occupancy, five-star hotels also took the lead in the market, seeing 88 percent of their rooms occupied, an increase of 6.5 percentage points. Meanwhile, the average occupancy rate of three star hotels and four star hotels were 84.5 percent and 80 percent, increasing by 11.7 and 0.3 percentage points year-on-year, respectively.
By origins of guests, the majority, 625,000, were from Mainland China, which increased by 10.5 percent year-on-year, while those from South Korea jumped by over half to 35,500 from one year ago.
Hotel guests from Hong Kong, however, dropped by 7.7 percent year-on-year to 121,200 whereas those from India fell by 12 percent year-on-year to 4,500.
For the first two months of the year, the number of hotel guests totalled 1.99 million, an increase of 11.9 percent year-on-year, while average occupancy rate went up by 5.0 percentage points to 83.2 percent, although average length of stay of guests held stable at 1.4 nights.
