Some 5.1 million tourist arrivals were registered in Macao in the first four months of 2004, up 39.7 percent over the same period of last year, said in Maocao on Friday the Statistics and Census Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR).

In April, Macao logged a monthly record with a total of 1.35 million visitor arrivals, over 105.1 percent over the same month of last year. Tourism officials of the SAR government attributed the huge growth in April to China's mainland's facilitated individual travel (FIT) policy on Hong Kong and Macao-bounded tours.

In the first four months, tourists from China's mainland and Hong Kong account for 57.2 percent and 31.6 percent respectively of the Macao's total number of tourist arrivals, while 7.2 percent of the tourists to Macao are from Taiwan province.

Some 49.7 percent of all visitors to Macao, a city with a population of 451,000 and an area of 27.3 square kilometers, are members of tour groups, according to the Statistics and Census Bureau.

It was reported that Macao's tourism was severely affected in April last year by the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in neighboring countries and regions.

But tour guides said that Macao's main tourist attractions continue to be its casinos and other gaming and betting businesses, mainly horse and dog races, as well as its unique Sino-Portuguese heritage dating back to the 16th century and its Euro-Asian and Macao-style cuisine.

In the year of 2003, a record number of 11.8 million tourist arrivals were registered in Macao. Some casino executives hope that Macao's annual number of visitor arrivals can reach 20 million by the end of the decade. At least three casino resorts and one luxury hotel-casino complex will be put into operation by the end of 2006.
 
(Xinhua News Agency May 22, 2004)