News

Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) received the lucky tourists and organized the traditional tray race and dinner banquet today to celebrate the World Tourism Day concurrently with its counterparts around the world. This year's theme of World Tourism Day is "Tourism and Water: Protecting our Common Future". MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes remarked, "Water is not only a vital spring of life for humanities but also key resources for the tourism industry. It is our obligation to encourage industry partners and remind visitors to treasure water resources. The "Macau Green Hotel Award" scheme is advocating eco-friendly management in the hospitality industry. We believe the theme of World Tourism Day this year can help spreading a positive message about treasuring water resources." MGTO Director Senna Fernandes together with Deputy Directors Manuel Pires and Cecilia Tse arrived at Macau Ferry Terminal this morning to present welcome souvenirs to the lucky tourist today. Souvenirs were also distributed to visitors at MGTO Information Counters throughout the day. The lucky tourists of World Tourism Day came from Australia this year for a sightseeing trip to Macau World Heritage sites. The traditional tray race was held in the afternoon with participants setting off from the Ruins of St Paul's to Senado Square. The race was divided into men's and women's categories and attracted over 200 participants representing more than 24 hotels and restaurants in Macau. The first-prize winner of the men's category was Liu Yan Song from Venetian Macau Resort Hotel, whereas Leong Mei Fong from Galaxy Macau won the first prize in the women's category. Best Costume Awards went to Li Qiying and Galism Rogelio Jr. Magtaan from Holiday Inn Macau. During the 3rd session of its General Assembly in Spain in 1979, World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) decided to designate 27 September as the annual "World Tourism Day". This is the 34th year since the celebrations commenced in 1980. The main purpose of founding "World Tourism Day" is to foster awareness of the importance of tourism and especially its social, cultural, political and economic values among the international community. World Tourism Organization selects a specific theme message to commemorate "World Tourism Day" each year. Over the past 33 years, a different theme was chosen for the annual World Tourism Day. This year is the 34th anniversary of World Tourism Day and the theme is "Tourism and Water: Protecting our Common Future". The official celebrations of World Tourism Day 2013 are launched on 27 September in Maldives, with over 100 countries/regions carrying out celebrations around the world on the day as well. For more details, please visit: http://wtd.unwto.org/en. On the other hand, MGTO launched the first four walking tour routes themed as "Step Out, Experience Macau's Communities" today (27 September), encouraging visitors to explore different neighborhoods in Macau. The new routes are expected to divert visitors off the beaten tourist track in order to alleviate the burden and foster community tourism. Visitors and citizens can obtain the walking tour maps for free at MGTO's Tourist Information counters or download the walking tour maps or enjoy the videos of the routes on MGTO's website: http://www.macautourism.gov.mo.
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The "Conceptual Design Contest for Community Tourism Mobile App" prize-giving ceremony was held today (September 27) at the banquet dinner for "World Tourism Day". Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) organized this contest to promote the "Development Plan for Community Tourism" and apply more cutting-edge technology in the destination's promotion. Organized by MGTO and co-organized by the Macau Computer Society, the "Conceptual Design Contest for Community Tourism Mobile App" was opened for application in July. The theme of the contest is to develop historic and cultural tourism attractions. The Accreditation Commission selected the winner, the first runner-up and the second runner-up from the finalists based on the final assessment criteria such as creativity, user's experience, feasibility and relevance to the theme. The first prize was awarded to Lam Si Cheng and Ng Sao Lai, the second prize went to Lei Wai Kin and Lee Lai Ieng, and the third prize went to Pang Chi Kin. The respective awarded works have different selling points and special features, for example, interesting rating for walking routes, a platform for inter-communication and sharing of itineraries among individual travelers, distinctive mini games and game awards, etc. MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, Deputy Director Manuel Pires and Director General of the Macau Computer Society, Samuel Sam, presented prizes in the prize-giving ceremony. By participating in this contest, the contestants not only deepened their knowledge about Macau's history and culture and the essence of communities through the process of collecting information, but also utilized their knowledge and creativity of designing tourism mobile apps. MGTO is actively promoting community tourism, and launched the first four walking tour routes under the theme "Step Out, Experience Macau's Communities" today (September 27), guiding visitors to explore different quarters in Macau, and at the same time, reinforcing the use of multi-media and interactive devices to promote Macau. MGTO launched the "Experience Macau" mobile app in Iphone and Android version last and early this year respectively, while the official WeChat account was recently available this year, to provide visitors with Macau travel tips and promote the destination through the mobile platform. The office will continue to adopt more innovative promotional tecniques and explore new tourism markets in future.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that there were 197 travel agencies operating in 2012, an increase of 11 compared with 2011. At the end of 2012, a total of 3,670 persons were engaged in these travel agencies, up by 9% year-on-year, of which 98% were paid employees. Attributable to an increase in visitor arrivals in package tours and outbound travel of Macao residents, Receipts of travel agencies increased by 8% year-on-year to MOP 5.97 billion, which were mainly generated from Reservation of Tickets (31% of total), Package Tours (26%) and Reservation of Rooms (24%). Total Expenditure of travel agencies amounted to MOP 5.71 billion, up by 6% year-on-year. Purchase of Goods & Services, including tickets (MOP 1.79 billion), room reservation (MOP 1.40 billion) and package tours (MOP 1.27 billion), together accounted for 81% of the total. Besides, Operating Expenses (10%) and Compensation of Employees (9%) rose by 23% and 16% respectively year-on-year. Gross Value Added that measures the sectoral contribution to the economy amounted to MOP 785 million, up by 27% year-on-year. Meanwhile, Gross Fixed Capital Formation of travel agencies dropped by 17% year-on-year to MOP 165 million.
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To prepare for the "October 1st" public holidays, Consumer Council, Economic Services department (DSE), Macau Government Tourist Office (DST), Transport Bureau (DSAT), Judiciary Police (PJ), Public Security Police Force (PSP), Macao Custom Service, Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) and Health Bureau (SSM) met earlier to discuss measures on safeguarding consumer rights. Consumer Council reminds the local residents and tourists to be aware of their right to consumer protection. Should disputes arise and that their interests are damaged, they should lodge their complaints to Consumer Council or other related law enforcement departments. To ensure that complaints are dealt with effectively, complainants are reminded to provide with relevant information. In addition, Consumer Council will provide services to consumers through its hotline (Consumer Council hotline: 8988 9315) from11am to 6pm during the public holidays (1st and 2nd October).
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Macao and Portugal have signed five co-operation agreements at the second Macao-Portugal Joint Committee meeting held in Lisbon. A joint communiqué issued after yesterday's meeting in the Portuguese capital said the parties signed agreements on education, environmental protection, consumer rights, and tourism. The meeting addressed the importance of the bilateral relationship development and increasing reciprocal visits and co-operation between the public and private sectors, it said. Before discussing further future co-operation, the both sides reviewed and concluded the works on culture, education, law, security, tourism, environmental protection, sports, consumer rights, and cartography and land survey standards. On the training for teachers of Portuguese, following the wide use of the language internationally, Macao would continue to serve as a platform to train and to spread Portuguese, which is one of the two official languages of Macao. The Portugal government would assist Macao in the training of teachers. On tertiary education, the relevant departments on both sides would deepen collaborations to enhance the quality of tertiary education in Macao. The communiqué said both sides have agreed to strengthen co-operation in heritage, cultural and creative industries, and in contemporary art. It was also confirmed that Portugal's contemporary architecture art exhibition will be held in Macao. Officials from the Macao's Consumer Council and the Portugal Consumer Protection Bureau would commence training in consumer disputes arbitration techniques.
Meanwhile, Macao's Institute for Tourism Studies and Portugal's tourism authority - Turismo de Portugal – have agreed to strengthen the exchanges of teachers and students, and to provide opportunities for internship.
A new milestone has been achieved in environmental protection which reflected co-operation on the control of emissions of air pollutants. Working on past co-operation, there will an increase in the exchange of judicial officials and experience-sharing meetings between members of the profession. In the economic area, both sides have investigated the co-operation in culture and creative industry. Entrepreneurs from Macao and Portugal held a round table meeting one day before the meeting to discuss the linkages of cultural heritage, innovation and techniques between the creative industry in the past and in the future. The delegations were led by the Chief-of-Cabinet of the Office of the Chief Executive of the Macao SAR, Mr Tam Chon Weng, and the Portuguese Foreign Ministry's Director General for Foreign Policy, Mr Rui Macieira. The two governments recorded that they were satisfied with the results and confirmed that the third meeting will be held in Macao. The first joint committee meeting was held in Lisbon in April 2011.
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The 25th Macau International Fireworks Display Contest is held at the sea area before Macau Tower from 14 September to 1 October. Due to the delay of regional maritime transport caused by the typhoon lately, the equipment of the Italian fireworks team could not arrive in Macau as scheduled. The show time and performance teams on 28 September and 1 October are therefore revised. The contest program is renewed as follow: 9:00 p.m., 28 September – presented by Groupe Fiatlux-Ampleman, from Canada *One show only on the night 9:00 p.m., 1 October – presented by SAS BREZAC Artifices, from France
9:30 p.m., 1 October – presented by Panzera-Industria Pirotechnica, from Italy 10:00 p.m., 1 October – presented by Dancing Fireworks Group, Co. Ltd, from Mainland China
*Three shows on the night
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the unemployment rate for June-August 2013 held stable at 1.9% in comparison with May-July; the underemployment rate was 0.6%, down by 0.1 percentage point. Total labour force was 369,000 and the labour force participation rate stood at 72.8%. Total employment reached 362,000, up by 2,300 from May-July. Analysed by industry, employment in the Construction sector showed continued growth, up further by 3.5% over the previous period to 35,000. Number of the unemployed was 7,200, up by 200 from May-July. With a new batch of fresh graduates joining the labour market, fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job increased by 3.4 percentage points to account for 13.6% of the total unemployed. In comparison with June-August 2012, the labour force participation rate rose by 0.5 percentage points, while the unemployment rate and the underemployment rate dropped by 0.1 and 0.2 percentage points respectively.
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The exhibition "Jazz & Design – Niklaus Troxler", organised by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Macao S.A.R. Government, in collaboration with OCT Art & Design Gallery and the Macao Polytechnic Institute, will open on the 11th of October, Friday, at 6:30pm, at the Tap Seac Gallery, located at no. 95, Avenida do Conselheiro Ferreira de Almeida. The exhibition features 100 posters by internationally renowned Swiss graphic designer Niklaus Troxler, showing his best works created during his prolific career spanning 35 years. Troxler started organising jazz concerts in Willisau, Switzerland, in 1966 and by 1975 they had morphed into the Willisau Jazz Festival, an international contemporary jazz event that runs over several days. He has also produced all the festival posters from the outset, impressive and richly creative artworks. He uses changing lines and colour interaction, combining everything that fascinates him about jazz music – rich notes, melody, rhythm, abstraction, improvisation, individuality – to create posters that have won him numerous national and international design awards. Through this showcase, the organiser hopes to inspire more creative concepts and share with Macao's designers and public the creative and motivational power emanating from these outstanding poster designs. The exhibition will run from the 12th of October until the 11th of November, at the Tap Seac Gallery, from 10am to 7pm. Admission is free. To offer a deeper insight into the work of this world-famous graphic designer, the organiser will also arrange a thematic talk on Design and Living, hosted by Mr. Troxler himself and by the exhibition's curator, He Jianping, who will both introduce the exhibition while sharing their own creative experiences. The seminar, in Mandarin and English, takes place on the 12th of October, Saturday, from 2:30pm to 5pm, at the Lecture Theatre 1, 1F, Wui Chi Building, Macao Polytechnic Institute. Seats are limited and interested persons should call 8399 6699 before 11th of October for reservations.
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Consumer Council conducted its specific price survey on over-the-counter drugs on 25th September for the implementation of Section 2b), Article 10, Law 4/95/M of 12th June. Result of the mentioned survey has been uploaded to the Council's website (www.consumer.gov.mo) and is available in the Council's 'Supermarket Price Information Platform' iPhone and Android apps. For inquiry, please call the Council's hotline: 8988 9315.
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The Macao SAR Government will issue a contactless electronic identity card to Macao residents from 31 October 2013. New security features have been incorporated in the contactless electronic identity card. The crytographic program is advanced on its original basis to further enhance the security of the document. The new security features of the contactless electronic identity card include: 1. Tru/windowTM LOCK (right top corner)
2. Tactile features:
(a) Golden lotus tactile feature in 3D engraving (bottom right)
(b) Lotus image with mat surface (centre)
(c) Relief text (in wavy shape, from bottom left side to bottom right corner)
3. Tru/visionTM (invisible which can only be seen under the ultraviolet beam)
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