The number of foreign passport-holders staying in Macao’s 45,000 hotel rooms was up by a quarter in July when compared with the year prior, according to new figures from the Statistics and Census Service (known by its Portuguese initials DSEC).
The foreigners totalled 76,000, with just under a third hailing from South Korea, the DSEC said. That’s a 44 percent year-on-year increase.
The data also showed that visitors from South Korea and India were increasingly opting to travel on package tours. Of the 13,000 foreigners who came to Macao on a package tour during July, 5,000 were from the East Asian nations and 2,000 were from the South Asian – respective year-on-year jumps of 153 and 713 percent.
[See more: China reports a sharp rise in foreign visitors]
The total number of foreigners visiting Macao on package tours increased by 31 percent in July, year-on-year. Mainlanders continue to be by far the biggest users of package tours to visit Macao, and their numbers grew even more: by 69 percent year-on-year in July.
The number of Macao residents purchasing out-bound travel services through agencies was up 49 percent over the same period.
The Macao Government Tourism Office has said it expected around two million international tourists to visit the city this year. Just over 1.3 million of them were recorded between January and July.
