MACAO, May 6 -- The tourism office of China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government said on Tuesday that, according to preliminary statistics, the SAR had welcomed 849,819 visitors on May 1-5, a 40.7 percent increase compared to last year.

The average number of daily visitors was around 170,000, exceeding the 158,000 daily average from 2019, the office said, noting on May 2, the number of visitors reached nearly 222,000, setting a new record for the highest single-day visitor arrival since the pandemic.

Industry sources also revealed that the average hotel occupancy rate in Macao during the holiday period was 94.1 percent, an increase of five percentage points compared to last year.