Enclave had 1.5 million visitors in October

Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2004 | 9:04 a.m.

Macau, a casino-sprouting enclave that reverted to Chinese rule in 1999, hosted 1.51 million visitors in October, up more than a third from a year ago, the city's Statistics and Census Service said.

In the first 10 months, visitor arrivals rose 44.1 percent to 13.7 million, the statistics bureau said in a statement on its Web site. The number exceeded the 11.9 million arrivals in the whole of 2003.

The number of visitors from China climbed 78.1 percent to 7.84 million in the first 10 months and made up more than half of the total. In October alone, the number of Chinese tourists rose 48.3 percent to 876,742, it said.

The influx of visitors from China after the mainland government eased travel restrictions is helping to spur a tourism boom in Macau where new casinos and hotels are starting up after tycoon Stanley Ho's four-decade gambling monopoly ended in 2002. The $265 million Sands Macau, the first Las Vegas-style casino in Asia, opened in May with gamblers spending an average $1.37 million each day.

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