MACAO - The total spending (excluding gaming expenses) of visitors in China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) for the whole year in 2018 increased by 13.6 percent year-on-year to 69.69 billion patacas, the SAR's statistics service said on Saturday.

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the total spending of overnight visitors (56.24 billion patacas) and same-day visitors (13.45 billion patacas) recorded respective growth of 13.0 percent and 16.2 percent.

The per-capita spending of visitors for the whole year rose by 3.5 percent to 1,946 patacas. Per-capita spending of overnight visitors grew by 5.5 percent year-on-year to 3,041 patacas, and that of same-day visitors rose by 3.1 percent to 777 patacas.

Per-capita spending of visitors from the Chinese mainland took the lead in 2018 at 2,242 patacas, up by 1.8 percent year-on-year; spending of those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme (2,609 patacas) rose by 4.9 percent year-on-year.

In 2018, shopping spending of visitors (916 patacas) rose by 7.2 percent year-on-year and accounted for 47.1 percent of per-capita spending, whereas spending on accommodation (498 patacas), and food and beverage (389 patacas) constituted 25.6 percent and 20.0 percent respectively. (One US dollar equals to 8.08 patacas)