The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) once again held the Quality Tourism Services Accreditation Scheme (QTSAS), last year targeting both catering sector, and travel agencies for the first time. In December, QTSAS presented the Star Merchant Award of the year to 42 qualified catering businesses and 28 qualified travel agencies, of which four catering businesses and two travel agencies were also given the Service Star Award.

At the QTSAS Awards Gala Dinner held in early December, the Chief of Office of the Secretariat for Social Affairs and Culture, Ip Peng Kin, encouraged the industry organization to be creative whilst leveraging the benefits of innovative media and technology to provide more fascinating travel experiences for visitors, which in turn is expected to foster the development of smart tourism in Macao. He added that while MGTO is currently undertaking preparatory work for Macao's application to become a UNESCO Creative Cities Network member in the field of Gastronomy, local catering businesses can do their best to provide high quality services to help Macao become a City of Gastronomy.

MGTO launched the QTSAS in 2014 with the objective of not only establishing service quality standards for members of the tourism industry but supporting and encouraging them to upgrade their service quality. The Scheme also seeks to recognize tourism businesses for their outstanding services and excellent service management. QTSAS awards two accolades – namely, the Star Merchant Award and Service Star Award. With the catering industry achieving excellent results in the first two years of being rolled out the Office extended the Scheme to include travel agencies as well last year.

Check out the list of award-winning merchants on the MGTO website: http://en.macaotourism.gov.mo/index.php. In addition, MGTO continues to promote the Scheme via various channels, with leaflets listing the award-winning travel agencies.