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Macao Travel News

Macao welcomes culture and tourism development plan for Greater Bay Area

The tourism development plan for the Greater Bay Area sets out clear directions for the integrated development of Macao’s culture and tourism sectors

The Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government will realise and implement, in an orderly manner, the major goals and tasks outlined in the culture and tourism development plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Greater Bay Area).

The plan was jointly issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Office of the Leading Group for the Development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the Guangdong Government.

The culture and tourism development plan is formulated to meet the outline development plan for the Greater Bay Area that was issued in February 2019. The culture and tourism development plan adheres to the “One country, two systems” principle, and encompasses initiatives to promote the strengths of respectively Hong Kong and Macao, in a way that allows the two SARs to align with the national development effort.

The policy blueprint sets out clear directions for the integrated development of Macao’s culture and tourism sectors. The Macao SAR Government will treat the culture and tourism development plan as a template for action in order to bolster development of those sectors. The aim is to better integrate the city into the national development effort and advance overall development of the Greater Bay Area.

The Macao SAR Government will join hands with local government counterparts in the Greater Bay Area in order to develop a Greater Bay Area enriched for humanity, with a focus on leisure, in order to advance the region as a quality location to live in, for work and travel.

The culture and tourism development plan will create enormous opportunities for coordinated development in Macao’s culture and tourism sectors. With strong support at a national level, the blueprint will provide greater room for exchange and cooperation within the Greater Bay Area to Macao workers in the culture and arts sector, and to those engaging with the cultural and creative industries, as well as to education and training institutions, and tourism operators.

The Macao SAR Government fully agrees with proposals for innovation that are incorporated in the culture and tourism development plan, including the framework for regional exchange, and its concepts for integrating cultural and tourism offerings. The specific tasks, policies, measures and priority actions outlined in the culture and tourism development plan help define the respective inherent advantages of Macao and other Greater Bay Area cities. These processes will strengthen the policy coordination effort within the Greater Bay Area, and assist in pressing ahead with Macao’s positioning as a multicultural exchange and cooperation base with an emphasis on Chinese culture.

In addition, the culture and tourism development plan bolsters Macao’s two important “business cards” – the Historic Centre of Macao as part of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO’s) World Heritage List, and Macao’s status as a City of Gastronomy under UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network.

The culture and tourism development plan also complements Macao’s efforts to identify further distinctive local tourism features and to advance planning for a “multi-destination” model of tourism. These efforts are conducive to attracting a greater number of tourists from overseas to visit Macao and other Greater Bay Area cities.

The Greater Bay Area is a city cluster formed by nine cities in Guangdong Province – namely Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing – plus the Hong Kong SAR and the Macao SAR.

The full text (Chinese version) of the culture and tourism development plan is available at the website of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Please visit www.mct.gov.cn for details.

Meeting convened in Guangzhou for fostering implementation of the “Culture and Tourism Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area”
 
The meeting for fostering implementation of the “Culture and Tourism Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area” (referred to as the “Plan”) was held in Guangzhou on 18 March 2021, using online and offline formats.
 
It was the first meeting held since the launch of the Plan, and aimed to push forward progress on its implementation. The meeting aimed to enhance communication and collaborative efforts in putting the Plan into comprehensive and effective practice, in turn contributing to the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
 
At the meeting, representatives of the Department of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Affairs of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China; the Department of Exchange and Cooperation of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council; and the Regional Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, each delivered their remarks and highlighted the great significance of the development of the Greater Bay Area. Representatives also briefed participants on the progress of the Greater Bay Area, and the expectations regarding the tasks to push forward the implementation of the Plan. Representatives of the cultural and tourism authorities from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, each gave a presentation on the progress of their respective work, the next steps forward, and major initiatives to put the Plan into practice. The representatives also led an insightful discussion on how to divide the tasks encompassed by the Plan.
 
Within the framework created by, and under the tutelage of, the Leading Group for the Development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the related public departments of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao will enhance their coordination and communication, while capitalising on the existing collaborative mechanisms for cultural and tourism cooperation. These include the Greater Pearl River Delta Cultural Cooperation Meeting, and the Tourism Federation of Cities in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Bay Area, two initiatives alternately organised by the latter three destinations. Such efforts are in order to steer the Plan toward substantial progress of implementation through the establishment of regular work and communication mechanisms.