Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) launched the 'Macao Tourism News plus' (beta version) on 28^th November, an online database of news materials for members of the press. The inclusive service platform enables members of the press in Macao and from around the world to easily browse and use the information archived in the database, thereby upgrading the efficiency and quality of dissemination of Macao tourism news. The platform also serves to provide reference materials and useful records that may facilitate Macao's development into a World Centre of Tourism and Leisure.

The database keeps over 7,300 data records which comprise more than 1,200 press releases, over 1,700 features of various events and up to 4,000 photos. At this stage, the providers of news are MGTO and its representatives in different parts of the world, who publish news in their own language based on their market demand. This segment of news data involves nearly 20 visitor source markets and over 10 different languages.

Displaying a simple and handy design, the Macao Tourism News plus is equipped with the function of full-text search across different categories of data, allowing media users to find all the matching results from different categories such as press releases, events, images and attachments by running just one full-text query. The Macao Tourism News plus currently offers Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Portuguese and English interfaces. The collection of data includes press releases of MGTO and its various market representatives, images, video links, Macao Travel Talk (monthly publication for members of the industry), What's On (monthly publication for visitors), promotional events organized by MGTO around the world as well as links to news pages of other government entities with which MGTO works in collaboration and among others.

At present, journalists and editors working for local media agencies and overseas members of the press recommended by MGTO representatives (http://en.macaotourism.gov.mo/main/contactus.php) are welcome to register for a user account at the Macao Tourism News plus (http://newsplus.macaotourism.gov.mo).