MACAO, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Macao's Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing and Exhibitions (MICE) events recorded growth in events number and participants in the fourth quarter of 2018, the special administrative region's statistic service said on Thursday.

The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that number of MICE events held in the fourth quarter increased by 83 year-on-year to 461, comprising 429 meetings and conferences, 22 exhibitions and 10 incentives. Number of participants and attendees was 736,000, up by 5.8 percent.

In the fourth quarter, number of meetings and conferences went up by 75 year-on-year, whereas number of participants fell by 10.1 percent to 79,000. Those with duration of four hours or more totalled 282, and number of participants dropped by 16.0 percent to 65,000.

The average duration of the meetings and conferences shortened by 0.2 day year-on-year to 1.4 days, while total floor area used expanded by 42.9 percent to 462,000 square meters.

The 22 exhibitions in the fourth quarter attracted 655,000 attendees, up by 10.8 percent year-on-year. Exhibitions organized by non-government organizations totalled 20, which drew 531,000 attendees, an increase of 15.6 percent.

The average duration of the exhibitions extended by 0.1 day to 3.4 days, and total floor area used was 187,000 square meters, up by 23.1 percent.

Number of incentives rose by 4 whereas the number of participants declined by 89.2 percent to 1,770. The average duration of these incentives was 2.8 days, down by 0.5 day.