• Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Alexis Tam, and Macao delegation inspects art works in Xiangzhou Port Cultural Centre (Photo courtesy of Tourism Development Committee)
  • The delegation attends Novotown project planning briefing (Photo courtesy of Tourism Development Committee)
  • The third ‘Macao Development as a Base for Tourism Education and Training for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area’ Meeting this year (Photo courtesy Office of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture)

Macao and Hengqin Exchanges Enhance Tourism Co-operation

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The Macao SAR Government Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Alexis Tam, led a delegation of members of the Tourism Development Committee (CDT) to Hengqin, in Zhuhai, on 26th September to deepen the understanding of Macao's tourism industries of Hengqin's latest cultural tourism projects and related tourism products. The visit also served to enhance the co-operation and integration of tourism between both places, further promoting the development of Macao and Hengqin into world class destinations of leisure tourism.

In the morning, the delegation visited Novotown and Xiangzhou Port Culture Centre, two of the most recent cultural tourism projects. Novotown fully capitalises on culture and multimedia resources, combined with international renowned brands introduced to the Chinese market for the first time. It features a multicultural entertainment complex combined with high-tech, tourism, music, movies and art, and is expected to be highly complementary to Macao in its choice of tourism products with the goal of further enhancing leisure tourism.

Meanwhile, Xiangzhou Port Cultural Centre is a large-scale thematic cultural tourism project which - combined with MICE, leisure activities, tourism, shopping, gastronomy, and so forth - offers rich cultural content (including artists' studio, museum, and intangible cultural heritage workshop) conducive to promoting the co-development of cultural tourism between Macao and Hengqin.

In the afternoon, the delegation inspected Hengqin Planning Exhibition Hall to gain a better grasp of planning, design, notion of development, management, infrastructure, and so forth of Hengqin New Area; it also visited Sumlodol Hengqin Camping Park to gain firsthand experience of the latest tourism projects, which synthesised self-drive tours, camping and theme park into one park.

Later that day, the delegation participated in the 'Tourism Exchange and Co-operation Meeting between Hengqin and Macao', exchanging ideas with Committee member of CPC Zhuhai Municipal Committee, and Party Secretary of the Hengqin New Area, Niu Jing, Director of the administrative committee of the Hengqin New Area, Yang Chuan and Deputy Director, Zou Hua. Content included expanding people flow between both locations, facilitating traffic flow and travel visas, strengthening talent cultivation, increasing co-operation within the industries, and so forth.

The Vice Chairman of the Administration Committee of the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, Lo Chi Kin; Advisor of the Office of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Stella Leong; Macao Government Tourism Office Deputy Director, Cheng Wai Tong; President of the Institute for Tourism Studies, Fanny Vong, and more than 10 members of CDT joined the delegation.


Alexis Tam Chairs Tourism Education and Training Meeting

The Macao SAR Government Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Alexis Tam, convened and chaired the third 'Macao Development as a Base for Tourism Education and Training for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area' Meeting in 2018. Following the meeting - in which members discussed the assignment of projects and proposed budget - members inked a 'Macao Development as a Base for Tourism Education and Training for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area' co-operation agreement, thus consolidating co-operation between the relevant parties.

Alexis Tam mentioned during the meeting that Macao higher education institutes had assembled a highly qualified teaching team via years of higher education and professional training in the tourism sector, adding Macao has unique East-West cultural exchange tourism resources providing an excelling training ground for students to learn via hands-on training.

'Macao Development as a Base for Tourism Education and Training for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area' is chaired by the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, co-ordinated by the Institute for Tourism Studies, with members including heads and leaders from Macao Government Tourism Office, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, Tertiary Education Services Office, University of Macau, Macao Polytechnic Institute, Academy of Public Security Forces, Macau University of Science and Technology, City University of Macau, University of Saint Joseph, Kiang Wu Nursing College of Macau, Macau Institute of Management and Macau Millennium College.

The previous meetings were held on 13th March and 19th June of this year.