MACAO - The average occupancy rate of Macao's hotels reached 85.6 percent in March 2012, with four-star hotels leading at 89.5 percent, according to figures released on Monday by the city's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

A total of 760,416 guests checked into local hotels and guest-houses in March 2012, up by 12.2 percent year-on-year. However, the average length of stay of guests for the period decreased by 0. 08 nights to 1.4 nights, the figures indicated.

At the end of March 2012, total number of available guest rooms of the hotel sector increased by 10.6 percent year-on-year to 22, 272, with that of 5-star hotels accounting for 63.7 percent of the total, according to the DSEC.

Number of guests increased by 13.6 percent year-on-year to 2, 180,685 in the first quarter of 2012. The average occupancy rate of hotels and guest-houses stood at 83.2 percent, up by 2.2 percentage points year-on-year.

In the first quarter of 2012, visitor-guests accounted for 64.3 percent of the total number of overnight visitors, higher than the 61.5 percent from the same period of 2011.