The number of tourist arrivals in China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) slid a year-on-year 12.1 percent in January, as a Spring Festival tourism boomwas in February this year but in January Last year.
The Statistics and Census Services said Friday that the city received a total of 778,100 tourists in January.
Hong Kong remained the largest tourist source for Macao despitea drop of as much as 28.5 percent. Visitors from Hong Kong, China's inland areas, Taiwan, Japan and southeast Asia account for 46.4 percent, 34.8 percent, 12.5 percent, 1.4 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively, of the total.
The SAR played host to a record of more than ten million tourists in 2001, statistics show. An improving image of the city,compounded by opening of the gambling sector, is expected to highlight a bright future for the tourism business.
( Xinhua News Agency February 22, 2002)
