Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) organized an exciting Tray Race and the World Tourism Day banquet today (September 24) to celebrate "World Tourism Day 2010" in advance. The official celebrations of World Tourism Day 2010 will be launched on September 27th in Guangzhou. This is the first time for China to be the host country of World Tourism Day, and Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macau SAR Government Dr Cheong U will lead a delegation from MGTO to Guangzhou to take part in the event. MGTO hosted a series of activities in Macau today to celebrate “World Tourism Day” in advance. Director of MGTO, João Manuel Costa Antunes and Deputy Directors Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes and Manuel Pires presented welcome gifts to lucky tourists at the Macau Ferry Terminal in the morning. Souvenirs were also distributed to visitors at MGTO Information Counters throughout the day. Traveling with her son, Ms Lu from Beijing was the lucky tourist of this year's World Tourism Day. Citing that it was her first visit to Macau, Ms Lu wanted to see Macau’s development after returning to the Motherland and expressed that she would visit Macau again in the future. Ms Lu was given a World Heritage souvenir and shopping coupon as gifts. The traditional Tray Race was held in the afternoon, where waiters and waitresses ran down the stoned-path from the Ruins of St Paul's to Senado Square carrying a tray with a bottle of beer on it. The race attracted the highest number of participants this year, totaling 206 waiters and waitresses from 30 hotels and restaurants in Macau. Crowds of visitors and locals cheered for the participants. The winner of the men's division was Zhao Gang from Hotel Grand Lisboa and the winner of the women's division was Li Fu Ling from The Venetian Macau-Resort-Hotel. The Best Costume Awards went to Roberto Garrone of Grand Hyatt Macau and Wong Pui San of Hard Rock Hotel. In the evening, MGTO held a dinner banquet, attended by Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Cheong U, MGTO officials and travel trade representatives to celebrate "World Tourism Day". Speaking at the dinner, Secretary Cheong expressed, " Macau is positioned as a global center of tourism and leisure, while moving towards diversification. The SAR government is also developing cultural and creative industries, which will be integrated with tourism to realize the potential of cultural tourism. I believe the diversification of Macau would appeal to visitors of different interests from around the world." “The continuous opening of new tourism facilities is bound to bring new opportunities to Macau, while at the same time posing challenges of human resources and service quality. We look forward to the support and cooperation of our travel trade partners in enhancing both hardware and software so as to provide honest and quality service to our visitors,” he continued. World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), in the third session of its General Assembly in Spain (September 1979), decided to designate September 27 as the annual "World Tourism Day". This is the 31st year since the celebrations commenced in 1980. The main purpose of "World Tourism Day" is to foster awareness among the international community of the importance of tourism and its social, cultural, political and economic values. Each year, World Tourism Organization selects a different theme for "World Tourism Day". This year is the 31st anniversary of World Tourism Day and the theme is “Tourism and Biodiversity”. The official celebrations of World Tourism Day 2010 will be launched on September 27th in Guangzhou, with more than 160 countries and regions also carrying out activities to celebrate the day. For more details check http://www.unwto.org/worldtourismday/index.php?lang=E
This press release is available on www.macautourism.gov.mo
