MGTO and GEG receive flag for APAVT Congress 2025 to be held in Macao
The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) hosted yesterday (25 October) a “Macao Night” during the 49th Portuguese Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies (APAVT) Congress being held in Spain to showcase the “tourism + conventions and exhibitions” appeal of the destination. With a dinner featuring east-meets-west gastronomy and entertainment, MGTO invited the delegates to attend the 50th APAVT Congress, scheduled to be held next year in Macao, as part of the work to expand international visitor source markets.
APAVT hands flag to Macao hosts of next year’s 50th Congress
MGTO Director, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, joined by the Director of Corporate Affairs of Galaxy Entertainment Group (GEG), Buddy Lam, among others, travelled to Spain to attend this year’s APAVT Congress, which opened on Thursday and closes today (26 October) in Huelva, Andalucia. MGTO took the opportunity to conduct a “Macao Night” at the event, which gathered approximately 640 delegates from the Portuguese travel industry.
During the “Macao Night”, APAVT symbolically handed the flag of next year’s congress to MGTO and GEG as host and co-host of the event slated to be held 2 to 4 December 2025 in Macao at the Galaxy International Convention Center.
Rebound European market together with travel trade
Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes highlighted in her remarks at the occasion that conditions are in place for Macao to host another memorable APAVT Congress and enable Portuguese travel trade to learn about the current new dynamic development of the city as a world center of tourism and leisure, pointing out that the event is the culmination of multiple initiatives conducted in partnership with APAVT after the pandemic, mostly directed to the travel trade to rebound visitor flows between Portugal, Spain, Europe, and Macao.
The president of APAVT, Pedro Costa Ferreira, said that the association’s relationship with Macao is more than a relationship between an issuing market and a tourist destination, it is a relationship of friendship that also extends to collaboration in the Spanish and the European market, promissing that the fiftieth annual congress to be held in the fabulous destination that is Macao - full of diversity, a meeting of cultures, tradition and exoticism, history and innovation - will be the best of all.
“Macao Night” showcases “tourism +” charm of the destination
The dinner of the “Macao Night” presented a menu and entertainment program to provide a showcase of the array of offerings and appeal of the city as a destination to host “tourism + conventions and exhibitions” events.
MGTO highlighted Macao’s east-meets-west heritage, especially as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, with the food including Macanese cuisine delicacies prepared by expert Graça Pacheco Jorge, along with entertainment featuring a culinary themed dance performance “Le Grand Restaurant”, Chinese traditional dance, a music ensemble performing Chinese and western instruments, and more.
Multi-channel and diverse approaches to attract visitors from Portugal-Spain-Europe
As part of the work to rebound visitor flows from Europe after the pandemic, MGTO has been partnering with APAVT to conduct promotional activities targeting the Portuguese, Spanish, and European markets. The initiatives include “Macao – APAVT Preferred International Destination 2024”, joint promotions in the Spanish travel fair FITUR and the Lisbon Travel Market, organizing delegations of European travel trade and media to attend the Macao International Travel (Industry) Expo, as well as the hosting in June of the “European Travel Agents’ and Tour Operators’ Associations (ECTAA) 2025 Macao Summit”, among others.
Established in 1950, APAVT is the most representative association of the Portuguese travel trade. Considered the main annual gathering of the Portuguese tourism industry, attracting hundreds of delegates each year, the congress will travel to Macao for the sixth time, after 1982, 1990, 1996, 2008 and 2017. Next year’s congress will provide Portuguese tourism stakeholders a firsthand experience and update about the new offerings of the destination, contributing to diversify international visitor source markets and reinforce Macao’s “golden calling card” as an international metropolis.
