The Macau Metro Monitor, June 14, 2012

LRT STARTS CONSTRUCTION ON ALL TAIPA AND COTAI SEGMENTS Macau Daily Times

Four months after the beginning of construction for the first section of the Taipa Light Rapid Transit (LRT) system, yesterday's ground-breaking ceremony marks the start of a full force construction of the entire mass transit system, and is expected to be completed in 3 years.

The 3.4km Cotai Section consists of four stations covering the major resorts in the Cotai Strip as well as the centre of Taipa village, while the 3.1km Lotus Border Crossing Section has three stations linking the Macau University of Science and Technology, the airport and the Pac On Ferry Terminal.  The 1.9km section with five stations linking Taipa village and the Sai Van Bridge started its construction in February.  According to Lei Chan Tong, Coordinator of the Transportation Infrastructure Office, the original completion target of 2015 for the Taipa project remain unchanged.

PACKAGE TOURS AND HOTEL OCCUPANCY RATE FOR APRIL 2012 DSEC

Visitor arrivals in package tours increased by 28% YoY to 695,762 in April 2012.  Visitors from Mainland China (491,337) went up by 20.3%, with 170,164 coming from Guangdong Province; besides, those from Taiwan (53,774); Hong Kong (41,672); and the Republic of Korea (23,247) soared by 95.6%, 68.6% and 25.3% respectively.

Attributable to the opening of new hotels, the number of available guest rooms of the 97 hotels and guest-houses totaled 24,211 at the end of April 2012, an increase of 4,063 rooms (+20.2%) YoY, with those of the 5-star hotels accounting for 61.3% of the total.  Average occupancy rate of the hotels was 82.5%, with 5-star hotels leading at 83.1%.  The average length of stay decreased by 0.08 night to 1.4 nights.