MACAO, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- The hotel industry of Macao experienced a strong performance during the seven-day China National Day golden week, as the average occupancy rate of local three-to-five-star hotels from October 1 to 7 reached 87.3 percent, rising by 5.6 percentage points year-on-year, according to the figures released on Monday by local tourism authorities.

    The figures from the Tourist Office of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) showed that the average room rate of three-to-five-star hotels was 1,226 patacas (155 U.S. dollars) during the period, up 15.46 percent on the golden week period of last year. The daily average number of occupied rooms was over 15,000, up by 11.65 percent year-on-year.

    The results indicated a change in the behavior of visitors, with more choosing to stay in hotels, while their spending sentiment was also on the rise, the office said.

    Over 420,000 visitors from the Chinese mainland arrived in Macao during the National Day Golden Week holiday, an increase of 2.12 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the statistics from the government.

    To enhance the city's tourist reception capability, the SAR's Tourist Office, the Guangdong Provincial Tourism Administration and the Fujian Tourism Administration trialed run the Golden Week notification system on September 26 and activated the system from October 1 to October 9.