Macao recorded 12.22 million visitor arrivals in the first seven months of 2006, a year-on-year rise of 15.4 percent, according to official statistics issued on Monday.

The figures released by the government-run Statistics and Census Service (SCS) showed that the majority of visitors came in the period from the Chinese mainland (55.4 percent), Hong Kong (30.9 percent) and Taiwan (6.7 percent).

Macao, with its famed casino gaming industry, has long been a tourism destination in Asia.

The special administrative region, with a population of nearly 500,000, logged a record 18.71 million visitor arrivals in 2005 and the number is predicted by local analysts to exceed 21 million this year.

(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2006)