The App is available in Chinese, English and Portuguese (three images)
The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) “Step Out, Macao” Mobile App with eight suggested walking tour routes for visitors and residents to explore the city has been awarded by the 2016 PATA Gold Awards in the category of Marketing Media – Mobile Travel Application, the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) announced. “The PATA Gold Award is a great encouragement for MGTO’s work. The App has been specially designed to allow visitors and residents to enjoy easy access to information about the eight walking tour routes of our ‘Step Out, Experience Macao’s Communities’ project on smart phones, and explore the routes more conveniently. We hope that the PATA endorsement can attract more visitors to download the App and do the suggested walking tour routes, for a more in-depth and rewarding visit to Macao”, said MGTO Director, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes. The winners will receive the prestigious award at a PATA Gold Awards Luncheon and Presentation on September 9, during PATA Travel Mart 2016, to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia. MGTO’s “Step Out, Macao” Mobile App is among the 31 Gold Awards and Grand Awards presented this year by PATA to recognize exceptional achievement in seven broad categories: Marketing Campaign, Environment, Corporate Social Responsibility, Heritage and Culture, Education and Training, Marketing Media and Travel Journalism. This year’s awards attracted 212 entries from 71 organizations and individuals worldwide, with the winners voted by a judging panel of tourism industry experts. The “Step Out, Macao” Mobile App was first launched in December 2013 with four walking tour routes, then upgraded in February 2015 to include eight redesigned walking tour routes, covering Macao, Taipa and Coloane. The Mobile App is an important tool to promote MGTO’s “Step Out, Experience Macao’s Communities”, aiming to encourage visitors and residents to know the diversity and hidden gems of the city, while also diverting the flow of visitors from the most visited spots and fostering community tourism development. Available in Chinese (traditional and simplified), English and Portuguese, the Mobile App offers maps of the eight walking tour routes, descriptions of the tourism spots, including The Historic Centre of Macao, listed by UNESCO, schedule of cultural performances, restaurants, bus routes, Wi-Fi, public washrooms, and other useful information, along the routes. Users can also scan the QRcodes on direction signs along the themed routes and obtain the tourist information offline. The Mobile App can be downloaded for free from App Store or Google Play. Since the launch of the first version of the App with four walking routes until July 24, a total of over 49,500 users downloaded the App on its iOS and Android versions. The top five download regions are (according to number of downloads) Hong Kong, Taiwan region, Mainland China, Thailand and Macao. This is the fourth time for MGTO to be distinguished with the prestigious PATA accolade. MGTO received a 2002 PATA Grand Award for Marketing with the "Macao Welcomes You Passport Campaign", was granted a 2007 PATA Grand Award for Heritage with its "Macao World Heritage Year Campaign", and a 2008 PATA Gold Award for Travel Advertisement Print Media for its “Experience Macao” campaign. Founded in 1951, PATA is a non-profit membership association dedicated to building responsible development of the Asia-Pacific travel and tourism industry, including among its members government tourism bodies, travel trade operators and tourism educational institutions. Macao has been a PATA member since 1958. For decades, PATA has been a valuable platform for Macao to promote its tourism image and connect local travel trade stakeholders to the world.
