Macao's visitor arrivals in package tours for the whole of last year dropped by 5.2 percent over 2008 to just 4.65 million, according to the figures released on Friday by the city's Statistics and Census Bureau.

In December last year, the figure also decreased by 3 percent year-on-year to 486,382, with visitors from Japan (25,159) increased by 24.9 percent, while those from the Chinese mainland (332,550), Hong Kong (25,931), and Taiwan (25,439) dropped by 4 percent, 20.3 percent and 31.4 percent respectively, the figures indicated.

Meanwhile, the number of local residents traveling outbound in package tours decreased by 10 percent year-on-year to 206,292 last year. The Chinese mainland and Japan were the most popular tour itineraries, according to the Bureau.