Macao's travel agencies saw their sales and other receipts for last year slightly decreased by 1 percent year-on-year to 3.58 billion patacas (448 million U.S. dollars), according to the survey results released Monday by the city's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

A total of 169 travel agencies, engaging 2,864 persons, were operating in Macao last year, an increase of 14 over 2008, with their gross fixed capital formation standing at 38.44 million patacas (4.8 million dollars), falling notably by 45.2 percent year-on-year, the survey showed.

Gross Value Added that measures the travel agencies' sectoral contribution to local economy rose by 7.5 percent to 508 million patacas (63.5 million dollars), according to the DSEC survey.

Expenditure of these travel agencies totaled 3.4 billion patacas (425 billion dollars), decreasing by 1.6 percent over 2008, according to the DSEC.