A surging number of tourists took advantage of the International Labor Day holidays and the sound weather in Macao to visit the Special Administrative Region (SAR) in May.

Figures released Wednesday by the Statistics and Census Services show the tourist mecca saw 213,500 visitor arrivals in groups in May -- a sharp rise of 46.6 percent from a year earlier.

This brought the total to 937,600 in the first five months, leaping 56.2 percent.

China's mainland was again the largest tourist source with group tourists in May soaring 76.3 percent to 145,900, among other tourist providers including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan. Many people from China's mainland came to Macao around the May 1 holidays.

Macao's hotel occupancy rate, as a result, increased 10.6 percentage points to 68.5 percent with three-star hotels recordingthe best performance.

On the other hand, Macao residents traveling to other places in tour groups rose by 9.8 percent to 12,700 out of the population of roughly 440,000.

More than 80 percent of them went to China's mainland. Other tourist destinations include Thailand and Taiwan.

( Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2002)