MGTO held the “Macao Tourism Industry Development Master Plan” International Conference at Tourism Activities Centre.
Meeting on 25 and 26 February, the “Macao Tourism Development Master Plan” International Conference has lined up experts from worldwide, the Mainland, Hong Kong and Macao presented relevant topics. Together with the representatives from Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), the government department concerned as well as professional organizations, the experts exchanged ideas and participated in group discussions on assigned topics. Through the two-day agenda, a broad range of perspectives were collected for optimization of the “Macao Tourism Development Master Plan”.
MGTO held the “Macao Tourism Industry Development Master Plan” International Conference at Tourism Activities Centre. On 25 February, the experts presented four different topics around the ‘“Macao Tourism Development Master Plan” including “Products and Branding”, “Innovative Technology”, “Industry Cooperation” and “HR and Service Quality”. The team of experts also joined group discussions with representatives of MGTO, the entities concerned and professional organizations to discuss the related topics and contemplate a vision for the future of Macao’s tourism industry. Through interchanges in the Conference, MGTO collected a broad range of opinions on the approaches to further optimize the draft of the Master Plan for the next stage of public consultation.
On 26 February, the experts and MGTO representatives participated in group discussions and drew conclusions on the proposed action plans and assessment criteria in the stage-one proposal for the Master Plan. Strategy implementation and goal setting for the Master Plan was also discussed during the Conference.
Strengths and weaknesses of proposed approach to the topics were discussed with opinions contributed, which will serve as reference during formulation of the Master Plan. The opinions collected will help MGTO to optimize the content of the Master Plan.
There were a total of 100 conference attendees including MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, Deputy Directors Cecilia Tse and Cheng Wai Tong, department heads and personnel as well as representatives of over 20 related government departments and professional organizations. The line-up of experts include Bill Calderwood and Tom Farney, with their expertise in tourism development and innovative technology for destination management respectively, Professor Davis Fong, Director of Institute for the Study of Commercial Gaming as well as Associate Professor of Hospitality and Gaming Management Program at University of Macau, Kevin B. Murphy, Chairman of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Executive Board, Dr. Jason Ni, Assistant Professor of Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at City University of Hong Kong, Eric Rankin, specialized in innovative technology for tourism, Dain Simpson, with expertise in forecasting trends and tourism product analysis, Professor Lin Jiang, Head of Public Finance and Taxation Department of Lingnan College at Sun Yat-Sen University, and Chris Yoshii, an expert of destination resort development and district planning.
In early 2015, MGTO invited public tenders for the “Macao Tourism Industry Development Master Plan Service Provision”, so to propose an inclusive development plan for Macao tourism industry in the short, medium and long term in order to map out a comprehensive “Macao Tourism Development Master Plan”. By doing the related work, the Office aims to foster sustainable development of Macao tourism industry in line with the SAR Government’s endeavor to build Macao into a World Centre of Tourism and Leisure.
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