Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) is promoting the city as a leisure and business tourism destination at India's main travel show, South Asia's Travel and Tourism Exchange (SATTE) 2015, which opened today (29) in New Delhi. On the eve of the opening of SATTE, MGTO also held an inauguration of its office at the Indian capital with a new representative. This year, MGTO is SATTE's solo "Feature Destination Partner", with MGTO Deputy Director Cecilia Tse addressing attendees at both the opening ceremony and welcome dinner of the leading travel show. At the opening ceremony held this morning, while introducing the city's appeal as a tourism destination, Cecilia Tse noted that "India is an important international visitor source-market for Macau and we are very glad to inform you that MGTO is stepping up its promotional efforts in the country and has appointed a new representative for the Indian market." SATTE's welcome dinner, co-hosted by MGTO, is taking place this evening with 700-travel trade, media and other guests expected to attend the event. Running on its twenty-second edition, SATTE, considered as South Asia's leading travel trade show, welcomed this year over 650 exhibitors from around 50 countries and territories. During the three day-long travel show, closing January 31, MGTO is promoting Macau at SATTE, with a booth inviting visitors to "Experience Macau", its cultural and historical heritage, new tourism infrastructures, festivities and events. MGTO held an inauguration of its new representative office on Wednesday, in New Delhi, to announce to Indian travel trade and media its opening and promotional plans for the country. A new representative office in Mumbai will also start operations soon. MGTO first opened a representative office in India in 2002. Following a new representative recruitment held in 2014, MGTO selected VFS Global to promote Macau in India. India is one of the most important potential international source markets for Macau. Following double-digit growth in previous years, the number of visitor arrivals from India has kept a good performance in 2014, totaling more than 167 thousand for the whole year, up by 4.5 per cent year-on-year, among which 80.1 per cent of visitors stayed overnight in Macau, 3.1 per cent more compare to the previous year.
