Over 1 mln border crossings recorded in Macao during Chinese New Year

Special Report: Spring Festival Special 2009

MACAO, Feb. 2 (Chinese media) -- Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) logged

a total of 1.23 million border crossings by visitors in the first six days of

the Chinese New Year, which decreased by five percent over the same period of

last year, the Macao Post Daily reported on Monday.

The decrease in the number of visitors was attributable to the

restrictions, imposed by the Chinese mainland authorities, on individual travel

permits for trips to Macao and the regional impact of the global financial

crisis, the daily quoted Ku Keng Hin, a spokesman of the SAR's Public Security

Police (PSP), as saying. The official Chinese New Year holiday lasted from Feb.

25 to 31.

Statistics showed that the number of border crossings (comprising visitors

and locals) for the first six days of the Chinese New Year in 2008 stood at 1.94

million, dropping by 1.5 percent year-on-year. Last year, the Chinese New Year

fell on the second week of February.