A total of 131,000 tourists in group visited China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) in April, down 5.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the latest official statistics.

Figures released by the Statistics and Census Services show that China's inland remained the largest tourist source for Macao, but the figure fell down 13.8 percent year on year to 78,000.

The number of group tourists from Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong reached 35,200, 5,200 and 4,900, respectively.

Macao's hotels hosted 238,400 guests in April,up 4.9 percent from the year-ago period, representing an occupancy rate of 60.8 percent, statistics show.

On the other hand, 21,500 Macao residents, out of a total population of roughly 440,000, traveled to other places in April, soaring 64.2 percent.

The SAR received 450,700 tourists in group in the first four months of this year, down 12.9 percent from the same 2000 period, according to statistics.

(Xinhua 06/11/2001)