Macau, China, 24 Aug – Nearly 16 million people visited Macau in the first six months of the year, 9.8 percent more than in the same period of 2010, indicate the Statistics and Census Services (SEC).

The SEC announced on Tuesday that 15,797,523 visitors entered Macau from January through June, of whom 8,935,559 were from mainland China, 4,440,583 from Hong Kong and 230,721 from the Republic of Korea, up 16.8, 4.5 and 25.6 percent respectively.

The number of tourists from Taiwan (726,543), Japan (208,748) and Malaysia (175,256) dropped by 6.2, 10.9 and 7.0 percent respectively.

In July 2011 some 2,550,867 visitors entered Macau, for an 18 percent increase year-on-year. (macauhub)