Macao recorded 293,189 package tourist arrivals in March, a year-on-year rise of 38.9 percent, according to official statistics issued on Monday.

The figures from the government-run Statistics and Census Service (SCS) showed that the majority of package visitors came from the Chinese mainland (251,654), Hong Kong (9,726) and Taiwan (8,574).

The SCS statistics also showed that the number of Macao's hotel rooms reached 11,297 at the end of March, up 6.7 percent over the same month of last year.

Hotel guests accounted for 40.5 percent of the total number of tourists in the first quarter, according to the statistics.

Analysts attributed the low hotel-room occupancy rate mainly to the hike of the room charges.

(Xinhua News Agency May 16, 2006)