Macau’s World Heritage and festive events to woo visitors from Japan

The Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) organized a series of promotional activities in 4 major cities in Japan to affirm Macau as a cultural destination for the Japanese market. From May 22 to 27, a grand line up of activities were scheduled to take place in Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto, taking the promotion of “2006 Macau World Heritage Year” a step further. Led by Director of the Macau Government Tourist Office, João Manuel Costa Antunes, the delegation comprised travel trade representatives from Macau and staff of MGTO. The promotional activities introduced Macau’s multi-dimensional tourism products, in particular “2006 Macau World Heritage Year” and “Macau Grand Prix” to three target groups - local citizens, media and travel trade. The activities included: “Macau Nights”, each attended by 700 to 800 Japanese citizens featuring Chinese and Portuguese music performed by famous Japanese musicians, on-site Macau visual tour and destination presentation; “Media Nights” which introduced Macau’s tourism products to some 100 local media; “Trade Workshops and Seminars” which provided the travel trade in Japan with the latest tourism updates on Macau and networking opportunities for the trade representatives of Macau and Japan. To strengthen the ties between the travel trade of the two places, MGTO met with 50 JATA (Japan Association of Travel Agents) board members to exchange information and further enhance mutual cooperation. JATA is the largest tourism industry organization in Japan with over 3,000 members from more than 90 countries and regions. MGTO also cooperated with the Japanese trade and media to promote a number of themed itineraries including “2006 Macau World Heritage Year” and “Macau Grand Prix”. From May 18 to 21, posters and video clips on Macau’s heritage sites and Macau Grand Prix are paraded on trains of Japan Railway’s Yamanote Line. Yamanote Line, with 29 stations and serving 4 million passengers per day, is the principal line of the Tokyo train network. The Japanese market has always been a major emphasis for the Macau tourism industry. Last year Macau welcomed nearly 170,000 Japanese visitors, a significant growth of 39% over 2004. The first quarter of this year saw a 17% growth in arrivals from Japan. Capitalizing on the effect of the Macau World Heritage brand and the promising future of Macau’s tourism development as various tourism facilities will soon be completed, MGTO strives to build Macau into a cultural tourism destination for the Japan market through this series of promotional activities.