MITE 2020 attracts 300 buyers and 23,000 attendees

The 8^th Macao International Travel (Industry) Expo (MITE) was a success, having included 188 hosted buyers from Mainland China, and nearly 120 international hosted and professional buyers online. There were more than 5,800 business-matching sessions, four sets of contracts signed and almost 23,000 attendees admitted to the three-day expo.

Supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China, the expo was organised by Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) and coordinated by the Macau Travel Agency Association. The 8^th MITE was held at the Cotai Expo of the Venetian Macao resort from 6 to 8 November.

The exhibition floor covered an area of 22,000 square meters, accommodating more than 660 booths. The expo brought together physical and virtual exhibitions for the first time. There were 351 on-site exhibitors from Macao and Mainland China, and nearly 50 exhibitors were present at the virtual exhibition, including tourism offices and entities from different countries and regions.

Six highlights to revitalise the tourism sector

To help spur an economic revival in the tourism sector, MITE had six major highlights including: promotion of local and Mainland tour products; innovative and interactive confluence of physical exhibitions and virtual exhibitions/activities under a “Cloud” series; a focus on tourism cooperation and product development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area; showcasing Portuguese-speaking countries as a Sino-Portuguese exchange platform; introduction of a “Community Cultural Creative Achievement Exhibition” and a “MAK MAK Pavilion”; as well as manifesting brand stories of “Distinctive Shops”.

Some 12 live streams were conducted by two key opinion leaders (KOLs) via the “Cloud Live Broadcast” feature. More than 40 on-site exhibitors took part in the live streams, which had a playback count close to 120 million as of 9 November. The peak number of concurrent viewers was 262,000. Additionally, 39 online exhibitors carried out promotions via the “Cloud Promotion” feature, engaging 1,475 on-site attendees.

Facilitated by “Cloud Contract Signing”, four sets of contracts were signed electronically over long distance and multilaterally, or concurrently online and offline, involving 45 enterprises. Assistant Director-General of the Economic Affairs Department of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao SAR Zhang Jianhua, MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, and President of Macau Travel Agency Association Alex Lao witnessed the signing ceremonies with other guests.

To bolster industry operators’ confidence in efforts to spur the sector’s economic revival, all local exhibitors were exempted from registration fees. More than 130 local exhibitors joined this year’s MITE, about 1.2 times more than the number of participants in the last edition. 

“Macao Street” featured more than 200 exhibition booths, 1.6 times more than last year, with exhibitors mainly selling travel packages, hotel accommodation, buffet tickets, dining coupons, signature products and souvenirs. More than 70 tourism businesses from nine cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area marked their presence at the “Greater Bay Area Tourism Street”, offering a wealth of signature products and souvenirs, mainly through a showcase of their brands.

A “Pavilion of Portuguese-speaking Countries Products”, set up by the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute, promoted Macao’s business environment and products from Portuguese-speaking countries.

MITE’s opening day saw a promotional session of tourism resources and products from Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Portugal as well as São Tomé and Príncipe. Called the “Promotion Seminar of Tourism Products for Portuguese-speaking Countries”, this feature was jointly organized by MGTO and the Permanent Secretariat of the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (Macao).

The pavilion and seminar promoted Sino-Portuguese exchange and cooperation in tourism, delivering Macao’s role as a platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.

Culture and creatives industries, destination tourism

The Pavilion of “Distinctive Shops”, “Community Cultural Creative Achievement Exhibition” and “MAK MAK Pavilion” were unveiled at this edition of MITE to foster integrated development of the tourism, cultural and creative industries, to manifest the charm of Macao and to help boost economic vitality.

Authorised souvenirs of Macao Tourism Mascot MAK MAK were promoted and sold at the “MAK MAK Pavilion”. Almost 3,300 visitors joined a lucky draw at the “MAK MAK Pavilion” and about 40 grand prizes, 600 big prizes and 2,600 consolation prizes were given out.

There were 25 offline presentation sessions at MITE, including the Destination (Macau) tourism promotion, Destination (Pidu District, Chengdu) tourism promotion, 2020 “Sichuan, More than Pandas” Sichuan Culture & Tourism Promotion & Sichuan-Chongqing Culture & Tourism Promotion Fair, “Meet Romance, Stone Forest on Sea” Naqin Peninsula Geological Ocean Park, as well as the Culture & Tourism Promotion Fair for the Famous Counties of Sichuan Province.

MITE’s organisers adopted a series of COVID-19 prevention measures for the event, including regular disinfection at the venue, stagger admission hours, and measures related to food and beverage services available on site. Everyone attending the expo in person had to wear a protective face mask, have their temperature taken, show a valid Macao Health Code, and comply with minimum social distancing measures.

For more information about the 8^th MITE, please visit the official website, WeChat ID and Facebook page.