Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture and Chairperson of the Tourism Development Committee (CDT) Alexis Tam hosted the first CDT Plenary Meeting of the year in May.

In the meeting, Alexis Tam spoke of the efforts invested in boosting the sustainable development of the tourism industry after coming on board and maximizing the synergistic effects. The 'Martial Arts Tournament' to be hosted by the Sports Bureau and Wushu General Association of Macau will be held in August this year in a potpourri of tourism, sport, festivities and cultural events. In addition to the martial arts competition, renowned martial artists have been invited to perform traditional martial arts, while interactive events plus Lion and Dragon Dances will also entertain local residents and visitors.

Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) also introduced the latest tourism trends in the meeting, noting that total visitor arrivals for the first quarter of 2016 had reached 7.4 million, a 0.6 per cent increase year-on-year. The primary source of visitors was from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan region. Although the number of visitors from Mainland China totalled nearly five million, the amount was down 1.7 per cent year-on-year. International visitor arrivals increased some 7.4 per cent, to 700,000, with the biggest increase provided by the Korean, Japanese, Philippines and Thailand markets. The positive numbers demonstrate the efforts the Macao SAR Government has put into optimizing visitor market structure.

MGTO also presented the work schedule of the 'Macao Tourism Industry Development Master Plan'. For the future of tourism development, some members suggested the government implement an industry-specific timetable for the work; at the same time, they expressed their expectations that various government departments be more proactive in following up on cross-sector co-operation projects. Meanwhile, some members suggested that for government organised large-scale tourism activities, arrangements be made for some of the ticket sales to be made via travel trade operators, as well as 'piggybacking' hotel packages and other sales channels. Alexis Tam said he would communicate with government departments in his portfolio and the tourism industry to strengthen co-operation between the two parties, and would endeavour to co-ordinate work across departments to improve overall performance.