Macao's tourism industry grew rapidly last year with a total visitor arrivals topping
27 million, an increase of 22.7 percent compared with 2006, said Chui Sai On,
secretary for social affairs and culture of the Macao Special Administrative Region
(SAR) government, on Wednesday.

In 2007, a number of major large-scale tourism and entertainment projects were
completed and started to operate" bringing new opportunities to the sustainable
development of Macao's tourism industry," Chui said at a press conference.

As of the end of 2007, there were 85 hotels and similar establishments in Macao
with over 17,000 rooms, and the Macao Government Tourist Office (MGTO) has
received more than 4,000 people in more than 300 familiarization tours to Macao,
according to a press release from the MGTO.

Macao, an hour-long ferry journey from China's Hong Kong, has a population of
528,000.

Official statistics showed that the Chinese Mainland, China's Hong Kong and
Taiwan are still the top three sources, and the mainland remains the largest source
of the visitors to Macao, accounting for more than 55 percent of the total.

To sustain the rapid growth, Chui pointed out that the government will continue to
consolidate the major source markets, adding "we will continue to develop more
regional tourism brands and multi-destination itineraries in the region."

Last year, the tourism authorities of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao have
reached consensus to readjust the current cooperation mechanism and intensify
joint promotions to build a world tourism brand for the three districts.

Meanwhile, the international markets will also be actively explored, he said, adding
"we will work hard to sustain the growth momentum of the southeast Asia market,
and at the same time, boost arrivals from mid and long haul markets such as
America and Europe."

He also said that the government will also promote Macao's tourism in potential
markets like the Middle East, Russia, Vietnam and Indonesia, so as to diversify the
city's tourism market portfolio.

Besides its worldwide reputation for gaming, the government is also eager to
promote Macao's image as an international destination for multiple culture, sports
and exhibition events.

A number of world-renowned large scale events and cultural activities including
Macao Grand Prix, Macao International Fireworks Display Contest and Macao
International Music Festival, all of which helped attract tourists to the SAR, while
at the same time enhanced the special administrative region's international image,
said Chui.

In order to deal with some problems maintaining in tourism sector, Chui noted that
the government has stepped up its regulation over all the travel agencies, established
a system to solve the problems and a hot line through which tourists can ask for
relevant assistance from official institutions.(source:xinhua)