The three-day PATA Travel Mart 2010 will unveil its curtain tomorrow (Sept 15) in Macau and Chui Sai On, Chief Executive of Macau SAR will officiate the opening ceremony.
The opening ceremony of PATA Travel Mart will be held at 9:30 in the morning, with Chief Executive Chui Sai On, joined by Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Cheong U, Chief of Cabinet of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Cecilia Cheung, Director of Macau Government Tourist Office João Manuel Costa Antunes, PATA Chairman Hiran Cooray, PATA CEO Gregory Duffell and PATA Secretary and Treasurer Anthony Wong, officiating the ribbon cutting ceremony.
The Macau SAR Government hosted a welcome dinner reception tonight (Sept 14), where Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Cheong U was present and delivered remarks to welcome the delegates, especially tourism professionals and media who have come all the way to Macau.
He expressed that Macau boasts invaluable world cultural heritage as well as diverse tourism and entertainment facilities. He encouraged the delegates to spare time out of their meeting schedule to walk around Macau and to experience what Macau has to offer as a global center of tourism and leisure. He also wished PATA Travel Mart 2010 a very fruitful event.
Director of MGTO João Manuel Costa Antunes pointed out that this is the first time for Macau to host this Asia Pacific’s foremost travel show. Every year, PATA Travel Mart gathers tourism stakeholders from around the world, who utilize this professional platform to network and seek business opportunities. The edition this year is no exception. In addition, by bringing together influential travel trade players from around the world, PATA Travel Mart also presents Macau an opportunity to showcase its ability and strengths as a host city for major international conventions and exhibitions.
PATA Travel Mart 2010, which is expected to attract a thousand delegates and guests, will take place from September 15 to 17 at the Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel. PATA cooperated with the Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) and Hong Kong Polytechnic University to organize a full-day seminar, “Human Resources Challenges in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry: Promoting Industry and Academic Collaboration” at IFT today (Sept 14). Tours to Macau’s world heritage sites were also provided for the delegates.
Founded in 1951, PATA is a non-profit membership association dedicated to building responsible development of the Asia Pacific travel and tourism industry. MGTO has been a member of PATA for over half a century since 1958.
PATA has currently 800 full members and over 7,000 chapter members around the globe. PATA's membership boasts more than 100 government, state and city tourism bodies, over 50 airlines and cruise lines, and hundreds of travel industry companies.
PATA Chapter is the foundation of the Association with close to 40 chapters all over the world, of which PATA Macau Chapter was set up in 1983 and it has over 70 members at present.
There has been a close tie between Macau and PATA. Between 1980 and 2002, PATA conducted 5 task force projects to provide guidelines and recommendations for tourism development in Macau. These projects include "Macau - A study of Tourism Development" in 1980 regarding the balance between heritage preservation and tourism development; "Macau Education Task Force" in 1990 concerning the overall education and training framework to meet short and long term manpower needs; "Macau Tourism in Transition" in 1994 pointing to the development of a MICE destination; "Macau Tourism Marketing - A new Focus for the Millennium" in 1996 about the setting up of overseas representation offices; and "A study of the Future of Macau's Tourism and its International Airport in the Context of the Pearl River Delta Region" in 2002 regarding market diversification and interrelationship between the aviation network and marketing promotion.
MGTO has been actively participating in the tourism meetings and activities held by PATA and since 1996, MGTO has been supporting the PATA Gold Awards, so as to promote Macau tourism.
In 2005, the 54th PATA Annual Conference was successfully held in Macau and its MICE industry then entered a new era.
