Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Cheong U, joined by members of the travel trade and Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO), attended a dinner banquet to celebrate "World Tourism Day". Speaking at the dinner, MGTO Director João Manuel Costa Antunes expressed, "Last year Macau welcomed about 25 million visitors and in the first eight months of this year, over 18 million visitors traveled to Macau. The rapid development of Macau's tourism industry comes with many changes and challenges. To cope with the new development, MGTO has started to operate under a new structure and we have six department and division heads assume office today. The new departments and divisions will strengthen the whole organization and MGTO will embrace the future development of the tourism industry with a new status while moving towards the goal as a World Center of Tourism and Leisure." Autunes also announced the launch of MGTO's new promotional theme "Touching Moments, Experience Macau" and the corresponding promotional video. Earlier today, MGTO distributed souvenirs to the lucky tourists and organized an exciting Tray Race to celebrate World Tourism Day 2011.
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. The lucky tourists of this year's World Tourism Day were from India. Mr Jayabalan and his eight family members will stay in Macau for one day.
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 a total of more than 250 waiters and waitresses from 37 hotels and restaurants in Macau this year. Crowds of visitors and locals cheered for the participants.
The winner of the men's division was Raymond Rubares from The Venetian Macao, and the winner of the women's division was Li Fu Ling, The Venetian Macao. The Best Costume Awards went to Christopher John Estremos of Hard Rock Hotel and Zhao Jin Yu of Holiday Inn Macau.
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 32nd 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 32nd anniversary of World Tourism Day and the theme is "Tourism – Linking Cultures", representing an opportunity to address how tourism can serve as a catalyst for communication and exchange between the different cultures of the world. The official celebrations of World Tourism Day 2011 are launched on September 27th in Egypt, with more than a hundred countries and regions also carrying out activities to celebrate the day. For more details check http://wtd.unwto.org/en
