According to the Macao Government Tourist Office, tourist arrivals in the Special Administrative Region (SAR) jumped a year-on-year 10.3 percent to 8.49 million from January to September.

Hong Kong remained the largest tourist source for Macao, bringing 3.92 million visitors to Macao. China's inland was catching up quickly by providing 2.95 million tourists, a sharp rise of 37 percent. And the number of tourists from Taiwan reached1.15 million.

Tourist arrivals in Macao were on the increase month on month from January to September, the source said, adding that the figures for July and August, the summer holiday for students in the country's inland, both exceeded one million.

Industry insiders noted that the city's tourism industry has benefitted greatly from a sharp rise of travel agencies allowed bythe China National Tourism Administration to manage the SAR-bound tours.

Currently, the Macao Government Tourist Office is seeking to make tourists stay longer and spend more as the number of same-dayvisitors still reached nearly half of the total in the nine-month period.

According to statistics, tourists to the SAR hit a record of more than 10 million in 2001 and the figure for this year is set to rise even further.

( November 7, 2002)