Best January ever in visitor arrivals

The weeklong Lunar New Year holidays helped the local tourism industry record its best January ever, as Macau received almost 2.5 million visitors, up by 18.6 percent year-on-year.
The biggest reason for the tourism boom was a 22.5 percent increase in arrivals from mainland China, which were just short of 1.5 million. With the Lunar New Year falling in January this year, the reliance on Chinese tourists soared to 60.7 percent of the total.
The growth was even faster for Mainland visitors travelling to Macau under the Individual Visit Scheme, totalling 711,500, up substantially by 32.2 percent year-on-year.
Visitors from Hong Kong (over 638,000) and South Korea (almost 46,200) also went up by 20.5 percent and 9.6 percent respectively from January 2011. However, tourists from Taiwan (over 85,500) and Japan (about 31,700) decreased by 7.1 percent and 12.4 percent respectively.
On the other hand, more than half (55.7 percent) of all tourists were same-day visitors, reaching almost 1.4 million. In addition, the average length of stay of visitors decreased by 0.2 days year-on-year to less than one entire day.
As usual, most tourists arrive by land (almost 1.4 million, up by 14.7 percent) but last month visitor arrivals by sea and air both increased faster. Ferry services brought over 960,800 people, up by 25 percent year-on-year, and the airport welcomed almost 141,000 tourists, up by 15.6 percent.