MACAO, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Macao's visitor arrivals for February 2009 reached 1.65 million, dropping by 17.3 percent over the same period of last year, according to the figures released on Tuesday by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

    The DSEC figures showed that the number of visitor and non-resident arrivals totaled 2.25 million in the period. Same-day visitors (889,308) accounted for 53.8 percent of the total visitor arrivals.

    Analyzed by place of residence, visitors from the Chinese mainland reached 827,804, contributing 50.1 percent of the total, in February 2009, which decreased by 22 percent year-on-year. Visitors from Hong Kong (540,668) and Taiwan (91,218) decreased by 12.3 percent and 12.2 percent respectively, while those from Thailand (21,480) and Japan (35,265) surged by 76.1 percent and 36.9 percent in the period, according to the DSEC.

    The DSEC also said that the cumulative visitor arrivals totaled3.56 million in the first two months of 2009, down by 8.5 percent year-on-year. Visitors from the mainland (1.77 million) and Taiwan (194,622) decreased by 15.8 percent and 7.9 percent respectively, while those from Hong Kong (1.18 million) went up by 6.7 percent. Same-day visitors accounted for 54 percent of the total, at 1.9 million.