Visitors from China increase by 91.6pc
THERE were 167,417 visitors from China during May, up 91.6 per cent over the same month last year.
The figure includes transients and seamen holding Chinese passports, two-way permits, travel permits or seamen's books.
There were a total of 758,905 visitors in May, an increase of 16.3 per cent over last year.
This brings the total number of visitors for the first five months to 3.49 million, up 12.4 per cent over the same period last year.
Taiwan continued to supply the largest number of arrivals for the five-month period, with 711,250, up 13.1 per cent over last year.
The number of Japanese visitors continued to decline, sliding 13.7 per cent from 551,440 last year to 475,934.
Visitors from Southeast Asia as a whole constituted the second largest group, with 496,942, up 5.5 per cent.
This reflected the growing affluence of the countries in the region.
Of the Southeast Asian countries, Thailand had largest number of arrivals, with 128,211, up 2.3 per cent.
The 62,288 visitors from Indonesia represented the highest growth rate, at 11.4 per cent.
The number of visitors from the United States continued to grow, up 11.6 per cent to 296,263 for the five-month period.
This healthy growth reflected the gradual economic recovery in the US.
Visitors from the United Kingdom increased 8.1 per cent, to 134,442.
Modest gain was recorded from Australia, with 101,194 arrivals in the first five months, up 2.8 per cent.
