Macao's visitor arrivals in January 2008 surged by 16.3 percent year-on-year to 2.37 million, according to statistics released Monday by the Statistics and Census Service (SCS) of Macao.

The SCS statistics showed that the majority of the visitors in January this year came from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, which accounted for 59.9 percent and 24.5 percent of the total, respectively. Among the Mainland visitors, 42.2 percent traveled to Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme.

Meanwhile, visitors from the Chinese mainland and Southeast Asia grew by 23 percent and 58.2 percent, respectively, while those from Hong Kong decreased by 3.7 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2008)