2008 Arrivals Surpassed 30 million mark Tourism Diversification key development strategy for 2009<br>“World Heritage” focus of promotion to celebrate 10th anniversary of MSAR

Director of Macau Government Tourist Office unveiled that Macau welcomed a record-breaking number of over 30 million visitors last year. MGTO will launch a series of promotional activities, focused on World Heritage, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Macau SAR. The MGTO Annual Press Conference was held today (Jan 14) at the Macau Tower Convention and Entertainment Center. MGTO Director João Manuel Costa Antunes reviewed the tourism achievement of Macau in 2008 and outlined this year’s tourism development strategies to nearly 500 attendants including MGTO representatives around the world, travel industry partners and 150 international and local media. Speaking at the press conference, Antunes pointed out that Macau's tourism industry continues to move towards diversification. The provisional figures show that visitor arrivals in 2008 surpassed the 30 million mark, registering an increase of 11% compared with 2007. Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan China continue to be the three largest visitor source markets, among which, Mainland China recorded a total of 17.5 million visitor arrivals, an increase of 17 %. Both number of overnight stay and overnight guests from January to November has exceeded that of the total of 2007, with 12.97 million and 5.92 million respectively. The average length of stay has also increased to 1.5 nights. He continued that the market share of international markets in visitor arrivals hit 10%. The top ten visitor generating markets are mainly from Asia. Southeast and Northeast Asia showed exceptionally strong performance, with arrivals growing 81 % for Thailand, 41% for Singapore, 30% for the Philippines, 24% for South Korea, 23% for Japan and 12% for Malaysia, showing a healthy progress towards diversification of source markets. On the regional cooperation front, Antunes pointed out that MGTO has signed tourism cooperation protocol with Shenzhen Tourism Bureau and Guangdong Provincial Tourism Administration respectively last year. Macau has also established last year an inter-departmental task force to handle the problem of “illegal guesthouse”. He expressed that diversification of tourism products and source markets are the main objectives for this year. MGTO will utilize tourism resources to enhance the development of cultural tourism. Various thematic tour routes will be developed to attract visitors of different interests, while multi-destination tourism itneraries will be explored to build up a regional tourism brand. Furthermore, a series of promotional activities will be launched to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the establishment of the Macau SAR. New tourism products such as hop on “Heritage Bus”, free docent service at World Heritage sites will also be introduced in addition to the popular scheduled cultural performances at tourist spots. Antunes pointed out that to be in line with the diversification of source markets, apart from enforcing promotional efforts in international markets, MGTO will continue to explore potential markets,. work closely with airlines to develop international source markets with more direct flight connections and deploy e-marketing initiatives. This year, MGTO will further expand its marketing influence by adding a representative office in Indonesia to tap this potential market, while continuing to venture into forthcoming markets such as Vietnam, Eastern Europe, especially Russia, and the Middle East for a more diversified market portfolio. He noted that the SAR government is putting great effort in the development of business tourism and the MICE industry. MGTO will set up a cooperation mechanism with the trade sector for a healthy and stable development of business tourism. The cooperation network will be consolidated through the “Industry Partner Program”, and promotional events focusing on the MICE industry will be implemented, while professional training programs and a cooperation mechanism will be set up to facilitate regional cooperation. Promotional tools such as a Macau Convention Brochure, Macau Incentive Travel Guide, 2nd edition of Macau Meeting Planners Guide, MICE video will be introduced to boost business tourism. He added that MGTO will support and host a number of MICE activities, including the PATA Annual Meeting 2009 to be held in Macau this April. Antunes expressed that while continuing to employ the promotional theme "Experience Macau" under the slogan "A World of Difference, the Difference is Macau", MGTO will showcase Macau to the world through the five senses "See, Taste, Touch, Feel and Hear". MGTO's representatives will utilize their strong and extensive local networks to bring the promotional effect to its full by organizing themed itineraries in the Pearl River Delta, family tour, world heritage tour, students tour, “silver hair” tour, gala dinners and travel marts. MGTO will participate in BTL (Lisbon Travel Market) as International Guest Destination to promote Macau. He emphasized that this year is the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Macau SAR. To celebrate this special occasion, MGTO will launch various promotional activities with focus on the “Historic Center of Macau” and organize familiarization tours to Macau through MGTO’s 17 representatives to showcase Macau’s world heritage to the world. Other activities include photo exhibition, gala dinner and tourism briefing for the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Macau SAR. Antunes stressed that Macau will strive to work for the betterment of the tourism environment. To achieve this goal, MGTO will continue to implement the Performance Pledge to enhance administrative efficiency, operate Tourism Hotline 2833 3000 that provides 24 hours service, reinforce tourist education, promote quality travel practices as well as arouse the tourists’ awareness of their rights and advise citizens of the matters to note when traveling outside Macau. He said that MGTO will launch a number of e-services such as online booking system, online application status enquiry, website version of Macau Meeting Planners Guide, online referral service for RFP, e-MICE survey and e-publications. Antunes noted that with the steadfast support of the Central Government, MGTO will work hand in hand with the travel trade to enhance the diversification of the tourism industry in line with the policy dictates of the Macau SAR Government. MGTO will also address malpractices in the tourism market to enhance overall service quality, aiming to develop Macau's tourism industry healthily and to achieve diversification. As the tourism industry is vulnerable to the impact of external factors, MGTO will fine tune promotional strategies in accordance with global economic conditions. When responding to media’s inquiries, Antunes expressed that it is difficult to anticipate the impact the financial crisis will have on Macau’s tourism industry at this moment, and instead of being pessimistic, it is more important to be ready and work closely with the travel trade to grab every possible chance to turn challenges into opportunities. MGTO is studying a scheme to assist the tourism industry which will be proposed to the Tourism Development Committee to stimulate and support the continuous development of inbound tourism against economic downturn. Regarding diversification, he emphasized Macau’s World Heritage is a crucial element in proceeding towards diversification. MGTO hopes that through cooperating with travel trade partners, both locally and in source markets, quality heritage tours and tourism products will be launched for visitors to enjoy with reasonable prices. Antunes pointed out that Macau will adopt a new system to present more accurate visitor arrival figures which is essential for planning new tourism facilities and supporting services. He believed that the Statistics and Census Bureau will soon announce details on the new system. Following the press conference, a mini mart was held for the local tourism trade to meet with representatives of MGTO to discuss business opportunities to bring in more visitors. MGTO’s representatives from 17 countries and regions came to Macau to take part in MGTO’s Annual Press Conference and Interim Marketing Meeting. Over 40 representatives met with different MGTO departments to discuss promotional strategies and activities on leisure and business tourism to further expand the scope and dimension of the 20 source markets. MGTO has also invited about 60 international media representatives from ten countries and regions to Macau to join the annual press conference to get first hand information of Macau’s tourism industry and the latest development of the Macau SAR as it prepares to celebrate its10th anniversary.