News

On the eve of the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey, the 19th Meeting of Governors of Central Banks from African Portuguese Speaking Countries and East Timor was held on 29 September 2009 in Lisbon, Portugal. At the invitation of the Governor, Mr. Vítor Constâncio, of the Bank of Portugal, Mr. Anselmo Teng , chairman of the Board of Directors of the Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM), attended the meeting and delivered a Keynote Speech entitled “The Economic and Financial Development of Macao in the Context of Growth of China”. The meeting was organized and hosted by the Bank o f Portugal. Governors and their representatives of Central Banks from African Portuguese Speaking Countries and East Timor, who would participate in the IMF/WB Annual Meetings, took part in the meeting. Practitioners of the economic and financial sectors of Lisbon also attended the meeting. The Governors, apart from introducing the latest economic and financial situations of their respective countries, also discussed about the prospects of global economic and financial development, as well as regulatory reform against the background of the financial tsunami. In addition, there were also proactive discussions on how to make better use of Macao as trade services platform to strengthen the economic and financial ties between China and Portuguese Speaking Countries. In his keynote speech, Anselmo Teng first briefed the participants with the latest economic and financial situation in China. Based on available information and statistical data, there is a general concensus that China would be the first economy to see “green shoots” after the devastating financial tsunami. He then introduced the updated economic and financial development in Macao. Moreover, Anselmo Teng also took the opportunity to introduce the main contents of “The Outline of the Plan for the Reform and Development of the Pearl River Delta (2008-2020) (the “Outline”)” released by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China in December 2008, and Macao’s positioning and development direction in the “Outline”. At the same time, Anselmo Teng emphasized that, as a Special Administrative Region of China and the legacy arising from its historical connections with Portuguese Speaking countries, Macao has been trying to develop as the trade services platform between China and Portuguese Speaking Countries. Finally, he pointed out that the financial tsunami did bring certain impact on the real economy of Macao. Benefitting from the large scale stimulus packages on the Mainland and the support from the Central Government, Macao’s economy has started to show signs of recovery since the negative growth in the fourth quarter of 2008. Macao hopefully will experience further economic development. During the event, there were intensive discussions on the above-mentioned topics. The participants also showed great interests in and are full of confidence on both fostering trade and financial ties with China, as well as Macao’s future development and opportunities. Macao’s role as the service platform will be further enhanced in the future. It is advisable that the relevant sectors from overseas and Macao should grasp the opportunities ahead. For details of the speech, please visit AMCM website: www.amcm.gov.mo.
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Macau Government Tourist Office representative in Australia hosted a vibrant and exciting promotion at Martin Place in Sydney this week to promote Macau and also to mark the 10th Anniversary of the establishment of the Macau SAR. The event at Sydney city center, which opened on Monday, saw over 20,000 people who visited the colourful display replicating the Senado Square area, to learn about Macau. Volunteers from the Casa de Macau community group and the Macau Students Association, who joined the weeklong promotion, spoke with visitors and handed out tourism information. The event featured an array of performers including the entertaining Portuguese dancers from ‘Aldeias de Portugal’, music by Son Veneno, face painting, caricature and racing simulators which offered visitors a chance to experience the dynamic Macau formula 3 Grand Prix racing track. Macau, A City of Festivals and Events will continue at Martin Place until Friday 16th October. MGTO also organized “a night at Senado Square in Sydney” on Monday. At a dinner decorated with a backdrop of Senado Square, travel agents, travel media and MICE industry representatives and other guests were treated to Macanese cuisine and an exciting promotional program about Macau. Special guests included Consul General of the People’s Republic of China Hu Shan, as well as Consul General of Portugal Simeão Pinto de Mesquita. Guests also had the chance to enjoy a dynamic performance from Andrew Chan, a Macau percussionist currently completing his study in Sydney Conservatorium of Music. The Macau tourism industry representatives participating in the event are from Turbojet, Westin Resort Macau, Viva Macau Airlines, Macau.com, StarWorld Hotel, Grand Emperor Hotel and Grand Lapa Hotel. The delegation is led by MGTO Marketing Division head, Betty Fok. Before Sydney, MGTO staged last week an “Experience Macau Celebrations!” promotion for Australian travel trade in Melbourne.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the Tourist Price Index (TPI) for the third quarter of 2009 rose by 2.76% year-on-year to 147.67. The price indices of Miscellaneous Goods and Food, Alcoholic Drinks & Tobacco increased notably by 8.89% and 5.68% respectively, which was attributable to dearer prices of jewellery led by rising gold prices, general increase of food prices and higher prices of cigarettes. On the contrary, price indices of Clothing & Footwear and Transport & Communications registered year-on-year decreases of 3.25% and 2.34% respectively. The third quarter TPI went up by 1.08% quarter-to-quarter, of which the price index of Clothing & Footwear increased by 6.45%, on account of higher prices for new arrivals of men’s and ladies’ clothing. Meanwhile, price indices of Miscellaneous Goods and Food, Alcoholic Drinks & Tobacco rose by 2.75% and 2.52% respectively. On the other hand, price index of Accommodation registered a decrease of 5.15% due to lower hotel room rates. The average TPI for the last 4 quarters ended the third quarter of 2009 increased by 3.07% over the previous period, with marked increase of the indices of Food, Alcoholic Drinks & Tobacco (+8.20%), Restaurant Service (+7.38%) and Clothing & Footwear (+5.08%); however, price index of Accommodation registered a decrease of 4.45%. For the first three quarters of 2009, TPI went up by 1.99% year-on-year. TPI reflects the price changes of goods and services purchased by visitors, which is compiled based on the consumption pattern of visitors derived from the Visitor Expenditure Survey. TPI covers 8 sections of goods and services, namely Food, Alcoholic Drinks & Tobacco; Clothing & Footwear; Accommodation; Restaurant Service; Transport & Communications; Medicine & Personal Goods; Entertainment & Cultural Activities; and Miscellaneous Goods. The base year of TPI is from July 1999 to June 2000.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals in package tours recorded a year-on-year increase of 3.7% to 387,407 in August 2009, putting an end to the continuous decline for the past three months. Visitors in package tours from Mainland China (272,485); Taiwan, China (28,101); and Japan (23,175) increased by 7.9%, 16.6% and 45.8% respectively; however, those from Hong Kong (23,899) decreased by 13.3%. In the first eight months of 2009, visitor arrivals in package tours fell by 8.4% year-on-year to 2,923,256. In August 2009, the number of Macao residents travelling outbound in package tours dropped by 5.1% year-on-year to 26,507. Mainland China (74.6% of total); Japan (6.2%); and Taiwan, China (5.0%) were the most popular tour itineraries. In the first eight months of 2009, residents travelling outbound in package tours decreased by 13.8% year-on-year to 132,971. Meanwhile, 45,896 residents travelled outbound under own arrangements with services of travel agencies, up by 22.0% from August 2008. Hong Kong (38.2% of total); Mainland China (29.9%); and Taiwan, China (15.3%) were the main destinations. In the first eight months of 2009, outbound residents travelling under such arrangements increased by 12.0% year-on-year to 285,826. At the end of August 2009, total number of guest rooms available in the hotel sector increased by 1,570 (+9.5%) from a year earlier to 18,147 rooms. In August 2009, a total of 631,454 guests checked into hotels and guest-houses, up significantly by 15.5% year-on-year, with the majority coming from Mainland China (47.6% of total) and Hong Kong (27.9%). The average hotel occupancy rate rose by 3.7 percentage points year-on-year to 80.4%, with 4-star hotels leading at 87.0%. The average length of stay of hotel guests rose marginally by 0.01 night year-on-year to 1.5 nights. The cumulative number of hotel guests decreased by 1.8% in the first eight months of 2009 to 4,261,908. In the first eight months of 2009, visitor-guests of hotels accounted for 61.0% of the total number of tourists, up from 56.8% in the corresponding period of 2008.
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The Government and the six gaming concessionaries have concurred in a meeting today that the industry should not continue to expand without a limit, according to the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Francis Tam Pak Yuen. He said the Government would review the scale of the industry, including the number of gaming tables. The Government would submit a bill to the Legislative Assembly in the next few months to raise from 18 years to 21 the minimum entry age for casino patrons and workers. Mr Tam said the Government would also introduce a by-law to regulate the location of slot machine parlours, after requesting them to move parlours in residential areas to commercial areas. The operators have agreed to this. The operators also pledged to guarantee the employment rights of locals, provide them promotion opportunities and to employ local workers when their new facilities open. The by-law capping the commission for junket operators has been effective since last month and the Government would closely monitor its implementation, Mr Tam said.
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The hotel industry of Macau experienced a strong performance during the China National Day golden week. Average occupancy rate of three-to-five-star hotels from October 1 to 7 reached 87.3 per cent, a 5.6 percentage points increase compared to the same period of 2008. The average room rate of three-to-five-star hotels was 1,226 patacas, up 15.46 per cent on the golden week period of last year. The daily average number of occupied rooms was over 15,000, increased by 11.65 per cent. The figures show a change in the behavior of visitors, with more choosing to stay in hotels, while their spending sentiment is also on the rise. Over 420,000 Mainland visitors arrived in Macau during the National Day Golden Week holiday period between Oct 1 and 7, an increase of 2.12 per cent compared to the same period last year. Close collaboration among various departments and the support of tourism and related entities helped to enhance the hospitality of the city to welcome visitors. Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO), the Guangdong Provincial Tourism Administration and the Fujian Tourism Administration trialed run the Golden Week notification system on September 26 and activated the system from October 1 to October 9. During the golden week period, MGTO inspectors intensified surveillance at Macau's most visited sites. MGTO also distributed the brochure "Enjoy Macau", reminding Mainland visitors on matters to pay attention to when visiting the city. MGTO's Information Counters and the Tourism Hotline functioned as usual during the holiday period. Targeting the issue of illegal accommodation, MGTO distributed posters against illegal accommodation and reinforced the hotline service for related complaints to encourage visitors to stay at licensed accommodation. During the golden week holiday, MGTO has also strengthened publicity efforts by publishing pamphlets to raise the awareness against illegal accommodation.
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To cope with the rapid development of the Macao economy, the SAR government has been putting their endeavors to enhance the city infrastructure development and improve the transport network. In view of the recent major infrastructure projects in the airport and its adjacent area, the Civil Aviation Authority of Macao SAR (AACM) held the “Airport Safety Management Systems Course” on 12 October 2009 with the objective of conveying the importance of the airport safety management systems to the government departments in charge of these infrastructure projects, the airport concessionaire, the airport operators and the project contractors. The course speaker was the Director of Airport Infrastructure and Air Navigation of AACM, Mr. Kevin Lam. During the one-day course, Mr. Lam explained to the participants that the concept of safety management systems is to consider and assess the organization as a whole, focus on the interconnection between the different systems within the organization, analyse and control any risks contained in the systems and the effect thereupon. For this reason, he stated that the implementation of safety management systems is to shift the focus from the implementation of procedures and the behaviour of the personnel to the management of organization accidents which can affect safety to a bigger extent. This way will reinforce the responsibility of both the senior management and the working staff, and help them to integrate safety management concepts to the operation line and ultimately improve the overall safety management capability of the organization. Mr. Kevin Lam emphasized that the objective of implementing safety management systems is to build up an approach to identify, assess, handle, control and put on record any hazards, improve the communication channel for collecting hazard and false information, in order that resources can be allocated more reasonably, preventive measures be taken and safety work be managed from the passive and afterwards manner to the active and beforehand manner. Through organizing this course, AACM wished to let participants understand the safety culture advocated in safety management systems, who will then encourage their staff to be responsible and be proactive in reporting any hazards, with the ultimate goal of integrating the direction, policy and standards of safety management into the values and behaviours of the whole organization. The course was conducted in the multi-function room of AACM office, with the participation of 30 senior and middle management officers coming from the Fire Services Bureau, the Maritime Administration, the Office for the Development of Infrastructure, the Transportation Infrastructure Office, the Civil Engineering Laboratory, CAM-Macau International Airport Co. Ltd., Administration of Airports, Ltd., East Asia Airlines Ltd., Nam Kwong Petroleum and Chemicals Co. Ltd., Companhia de Telecomunicações de Macau S.A.R.L.(CTM), and the respective contractors responsible for the infrastructure projects in the airport and the adjacent areas. Mr. Kevin Lam is a certified instructor of safety management systems of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). He has been invited by ICAO to teach the airport safety management systems course in Bangkok targeting at the aeronautical authorities and the airports in South East Asia. He is also a certified aviation security auditor by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Safety is the fundamental of aviation operation. To further create a safe and reliable aviation environment for the Macao residents, AACM holds training courses on a regular basis to introduce and promote Macao aviation laws and regulations to the industry so as to enhance their safety level and awareness. AACM conducted several courses in the aspect of safety management systems respectively in 2006 and 2008 for training the industry.
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The Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG) in March last year launched the e-ME Service (e-MET Express). Public can receive the electronic version of the weather and wave reports via email after registration. Reports include the 7:00 am weather report, 9:00 am weather report and wave report, 14:00 weather report, 17:00 weather report and wave report, and 21:00 weather report. In order to enhance Public Weather Service, SMG has added "severe weather warnings” in the e-ME Service. Notification of warnings will be sent to the subscribers via email once the warnings are issued. The “severe weather warnings” include tropical cyclone warning, thunderstorm warning, heavy rain warning, strong monsoon signal and storm surge warning. In recent years SMG has strived to extend different channels on provision of weather information to the public, such as e-ME Service (e-MET Express), InfoMet (Automatic Weather Information Service), and RSS Weather Channel, which help the public and organizations receive directly weather information by Internet and avoid the delay when using the telephone or fax due to network overloading. SMG will continue to optimize the existing Public Weather Services so as to provide a timely and effective delivery of weather information to the public. Related service can be referred to the SMG website (www.smg.gov.mo) within the "e-ME" icon. Subscribers will receive different types of weather information the next day after registration.
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India is the origin of curry, one of the most popular cuisines that are popular around the globe. IFT Educational Restaurant is presenting the glamorous Indian Food Promotion on 12-16 October. Chef Govind Ram Arya and Gorang Anand from New Delhi are invited to be guest chefs during the week. The diverse traditions and cultures of India have played an influential role in its culinary art. The cuisine varies in different regions, reflecting the customs of the religious beliefs. Curry is the spirit of Indian cuisine; northern Indian Curry is famous for its rich and unique favour, with sophisticated and subtle use of various spices and herbs. In additional, traditional Northern Indian Tandoori grill is also available; the charcoal grill is remarkable for keeping the juicy meat tender and mouth watering. The two chefs, Arya and Anand, are chefs from luxurious 5-star Le Meridien Hotel in New Delhi. They will bring a variety of authentic Indian delights, including the world renowned Curry dishes, Tandoori kebabs, Pilaff rice, various vegetarian dishes and lovely desserts. Operating Hours:
Buffet Lunch: 1230 – 1500 (MOP160/person, half price for aged under 12)
Buffet Dinner: 1900 – 2230 (MOP200/person, half price for aged under 12) Enquiries & reservations:
IFT Educational Restaurant (Tel.: 85983 076 / 077 / 168 / 185) IFT has always been dedicating to organise gourmet promotions of different ethnic cuisines for the public. At the same time, it arouses the interests of food services industry in Macao as to explore more ideas in cooking. Along with the Northern Indian and Tandoori Food Festival this week, Chef Arya and Anand will host a Culinary Workshop on 14 & 15 October at IFT, which local chefs and IFT students will have valuable opportunity to learn and experience the traditional Indian cuisine. It aims to inspire the participants to create more spectacular gourmets and to promote the tourism in Macao.
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Headed by Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO), a delegation of 21 industry partners of the Industry Partner Program of Macau Business Tourism Centre (MBTC) exhibited at the 17th Incentive Travel & Conventions, Meetings Asia (IT&CMA) held at Bangkok Convention Centre between 6 and 8 October, to promote the city as a new MICE destination in Asia. In tackling the current adversity, many Asian convention bureaus (CVBs) and destination marketing organizations, including MGTO/MBTC, are stepping up subventions to assist event organizers. Since the launching of the ‘Strategic MICE Market Stimulation Program’ by MGTO in mid of May this year and was revised on 1 August, the program has received positive response. Many industry partners revealed that the number of potential requests by the international buyers in hosting their events in Macau during the IT&CMA trade show increased compared to the previous edition. The booth of Macau at the IT&CMA received the bronze award for the category Stickiest National Pavilion. The prize is awarded to the country or territory which booth stands out from the crowd, by decision of a panel of juries. Being the second largest booth after host Thailand, the design of MGTO booth celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Macau SAR and decorated with colorful campaign Experience Macau. Organizers announced the winners of this year on 8 October at the Sticky Awards Luncheon. During the tradeshow, organizers invited Macau to conduct media briefing on 8 October, which was attended by more than 30 media from the different parts of the globe. Taking the convenience of time and location, on 9 October, after IT&CMA, MGTO held jointly with Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau a business session named MICE Macau & Thailand Seminar. The seminar brought together more than 50 representatives from corporate companies, travel-related agents and event organizers from Thailand with around 20 representatives from Macau, for service and products update and business discussion. In its 17th year, IT&CMA is the region’s premier meetings and incentive travel tradeshow and has attracted thousands of delegates from more than 40 countries. It is at the same time a platform for promoting the Asia-Pacific region as a MICE destination as well as a source for MICE visitors.
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