MGTO Promotes Macau Business Tourism in Beijing

The three-day "China Incentive, Business Travel & Meetings Exhibition (CIBTM) ", which is one of China's leading MICE tradeshow, ended in Beijing yesterday (10th September). In order to strengthen exchange and cooperation opportunities between our industry partners and their counterparts in the China, as well as to promote Macau as a new MICE destination in Asia, the Macau Business Tourism Centre (MBTC) of the Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) lead a group of industry partners to Beijing to exhibits at the CIBTM 2009. The Macau pavilion is the second largest in terms of exhibiting space in this trade show, with 23 co-exhibitors coming from the industry , almost three times as much as the previous edition, including event organisers and planners, hotels, travel agencies and association, etc. The design of the pavilion celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Macau SAR and it was so eye-catching that many buyers from the Mainland and overseas were attracted to stop at the pavilion, to learn more about the city, its MICE industry development and the newly extended "Strategic MICE Market Stimulation Program" launched by MGTO. The business tourism industry is considered by the Macau SAR Government as a key focus in its strategy to diversify tourism and the economy, while China is an important tourist and business market of Macau, therefore, we believe that through the network of CIBTM, we can source more potential and high quality buyers in the mainland and even around the world, which in turn will help strengthen Macau’s position as one of Asia’s premier MICE destinations. In addition, greater support will be extended to the local MICE industry to help strengthen promotional efforts around the world, especially in the Asia Pacific region. For instance, the Macau Business Tourism Centre of MGTO will continue to lead our industry partners to participate in major MICE trade shows, e.g. the Incentive Travel & Convention Meetings of Asia (IT&CMA) in Bangkok in October and the European Incentive & Business Travel & Meetings Exhibition (EIBTM) in Barcelona in December. To support the travel trade in tackling the current adversity and to be in line with the celebrations of the 10th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Macau SAR, MGTO has launched the "Strategic MICE Market Stimulation Program" on May 18, which has started to deliver results. MGTO extended the program on August 1 and it consists of three main categories: Conventions and Meetings, Exhibitions and Incentives. Any event organizers or planners able to secure their events in Macau before 31 December 2009 are entitled to apply for the support. More information is available at: http://industry.macautourism.gov.mo/cn/index.php