Macau, China, 23 Sept – Over 20 million people visited Macau in the first eight months of the year, which was a rise of 17.1 percent against the same period of 2007, the region’s Statistics and Census Bureau said Wednesday in Macau.

The Bureau added that the number of visitors from China (over 11.7 million) and Hong Kong rose 25.1 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively, whilst visitors from Taiwan fell 5 percent.

In August alone, the number of visitors arriving in Macau totalled 2.58 million, which was a rise of 8.5 percent as compared to the same month of 2007.

The number of visitors from China (over 1.48 million) and Hong Kong (757,000) rose 10.6 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively, whilst visitors from Taiwan (112,000) fell 7 percent.

In 2007 Macau received 27 million visitors. (macauhub)