According to the Statistics and Census Service, visitor arrivals on package tours surged by 133 % year-on-year to 569,803 in May 2010, as the industry was “adversely affected” by the human swine influenza pandemic over the same period of 2009. Visitors from mainland China, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong also soared respectively 168 %, 86 %, 38 % and 14.5 %.
In addition, more South Korean and Indian tourists had travelled to Macau in May. Between January and May this year, it was reported that some 2.57 million people, up by 23.2 % year-on-year, arrived in Macau in package tours.
The cumulative number of guests checked into hotels and guest houses in the first five months of the year reached almost 3.2 million, an increase of 20 % over the same period of 2009.