16.67 million visitor to Macau in 2004

Last year, the tourism industry of Macau has achieved appreciable growth, with over 16.67 million visitor arrivals to Macau, a surge of 40% over 2003. Among the total visitor arrivals, 9.5 million are Mainland visitors, who accounted for 57% of total visitor arrivals and have recorded a significant growth of 66%. The further opening up of Mainland’s tourism markets has brought about a structural change to the tourism market of Macau, and the strong arrivals from the Mainland has made Mainland China the key source market for Macau. At present, over 30% of the total Mainlanders who visited Macau came under the Individual Visit Scheme. By the end of 2004, statistics show that arrivals from the Mainland on ‘Individual Visit Scheme’ exceeded 4 million since its launch on July 28 of 2003. source: mgto