MGTO Director Participates in UNWTO Regional Conference in Bhutan

Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes was one of the guest speakers attending the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Regional Conference on Sustainable Development through Tourism in Thimphu, Bhutan, held on 3^rdJune.

Senna Fernandes stated in the session that tourism had blessed Macao with steady economic development, enabling the government to improve education, healthcare, employment, welfare, culture, sport and multiple other considerations. Its outstanding tourism development, however, had also brought pressure to bear upon residents’ lives, she said, especially following the recent opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, with visitor arrivals for the first four months of the year already surpassing ten million, marking a 20 per cent year-on-year increase. 

The MGTO Director added that the Central Government has positioned Macao’s development as a world centre of tourism and leisure, hence while developing the city’s economy, the Macao SAR Government is actively developing a tourism industry compatible with the population’s wellbeing in order to build Macao into a place providing quality of life and travel in a sustainable city.

Following the Regional Conference on Sustainable Development, Senna Fernandes attended the 31^st Joint Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for East Asia and the Pacific and the UNWTO Commission for South Asia, UNWTO’s principal annual event in the Asia Pacific region, held on 4^th June in Bhutan.