The number of visitors to China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) in tour groups was 1.38 million in the first 11 months of 2000, which shot up 41.9 percent over the same period of 1999, the latest official statistics show.

In November only, the number of group tourists rose by 12.8 percent to reach 107,530. About 58.86 percent of them came from the inland areas of China and 21.62 percent from the Taiwan region, according to the figures released by the Statistics and Census Services of the Macao SAR government.

On the other hand, 10,209 Macao residents, out of a population of some 430,000, traveled to other places in tour groups in November.

The most favored destination for Macao residents was China's inland areas, which attracted 79.1 percent of the total. The other two favored destinations were Thailand and the Taiwan region.

During the first 11 months of 2000, the number of Macao residents traveling to other places in tour groups rose 19.4 percent over the same period of the previous year.

(People’s Daily 01/12/2001)