The hospitality industry of China's Macao Special Administrative Region recorded 1.87 million guests in the first six months, an increase of 52 percent on the same period last year.

The Macao Statistics and Census Bureau said on Saturday that Macao's 67 hotels and guesthouses recorded an average room occupancy rate of 74.9 percent in June, up 25.2 percent on the year-ago period.

China's mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan contribute the main source of guests in Macao's hotels, taking up 56.4 percent, 32.6 percent and 3.4 percent of the total, respectively.

The number of hotel and guesthouse rooms in the tourist city totaled 9,300 in June, an increase of 4.2 percent on the same month last year. Tourists come for Macao's attractions of casinos, dog and horse races and its four-century old Sino-Portuguese cultural and architectural heritage, as well as its Euro-Asian fusion cuisine.

Macao, which has just 451,000 residents and measures only 23.7 square kilometers, is the only city in China where casinos are legal.

Source: Xinhua