MACAO, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Macao hotel business performance improved as revenue of the sector increased by 9.3 percent year-on-year to 28.47 billion patacas (about 3.54 billion U.S. dollars) in 2016, reversing from the decline in 2015, the special administrative region's statistic department said on Monday.
Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that attributable to an increase in overnight visitors and the opening of new hotels, the revenue of the hotel sector increased by 9.3 percent year-on-year, while expenditure grew by 13.5 percent year-on-year to 26.61 billion patacas (about 3.31 billion dollars).
In 2016, number of operating hotels and guesthouses increased to 109, including 77 hotels and 32 guesthouses. Number of persons engaged in the sector grew by 9.6 percent to 49,628.
The DSEC data also showed that as the new hotels started operation in the second half year of 2016, the growth in expenditure outpaced that in revenue, which drove down gross surplus of the sector by 17.3 percent year-on-year to 2.28 billion patacas (283.5 million dollars).
On the other hand, due to a remarkable increase in building and major renovation projects upon the completion of new hotels, gross fixed capital formation of the sector went up by 26.8 percent year-on-year to 36.58 billion patacas (4.55 billion dollars).
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