A total of 378,521 tourists visited Macao during the four-day Christmas holiday, which was an increase of 8.1 percent over the same period of last year, according to the statistics released on Monday by the Public Security Police (PSP) of the Special Administrative Region (SAR).

The PSP figures showed that the number of border crossings in Macao's seven immigration checkpoints, comprising visitors and locals, amounted to 1.42 million, which was more than twice the local population that stood at over 550,000, the PSP said. The Christmas holiday in Macao lasted from Dec. 25 to 28.

The total number of arrivals stood at 719,282, with the Border Gate, the land port that connects the island city to the Chinese mainland, recording most of the arrivals at 508,048. Meanwhile, the number of departures during the period reached 698,900.

(Xinhua News Agency December 30, 2008)