2019-10-15

Global Tourism Economy Forum

Global Tourism Economy Forum

For Immediate Release
PRESS RELEASE

Greater Bay Area Tourism Development: An Integrated Approach for Well-being

OCT 15, 2019, MACAO : Co-organized by China Daily and the Global Tourism Economy Forum, the Special Interview session, themed “Greater Bay Area Tourism Development: An Integrated Approach for Well being” will be held in Macao on Tuesday, Oct 15, 2019. The conference attracted nearly 300 government officials, business leaders and academics.

Ms. Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes , Director, Macao Government Tourism Office; Vice Chairman, Global Tourism Economy Forum , delivered the session keynote address.

She pointed out the positioning of Macao in Greater Bay Area is to develop into a World Centre of Tourism and Leisure and the Commercial and Trade Cooperation Service Platform between China and Portuguese speaking Countries, promote an appropriate level of diversified economic development, and develop into a base for exchange and cooperation where Chinese culture is the mainstream and diverse cultures coexist, and strengthen the role of Macao as One Centre, One Platform.

She pointed out that a round 40 million tourists are expected to visit Macao this year, but rather than simply increasing the number of visitors, what Macao needs is how to change the types of tourists structurally.

She said that in Aug 2017, the Macao SAR Government signed the “Framework Agreement of Strategic Cooperation on Smart City Development” with the Alibaba Group in order to better help tourists experience Macao . She highlighted the importance of smart tourism in developing Macao into Smart City.

She said that since 2017, Macao Government Tourism Office has started to cooperate with Alibaba Cloud to develop smart tourism and has jointly developed three projects in 2019, including tourism information interchange platform , application for visitor insights, and Smart application for visitor flows.

She hopes the experience of visitors before, during and after the journey can be enhanced through the various applications of smart travel.

The Special Interview follows by the keynote address had three distinguished speakers to share their views on the tourism development of the Greater Bay Area. They are Mr. Daniel Fong, Director, Nam Kwong (Group) Company Ltd. and Chairman of Board, China Travel Service (Macao) Ltd.;Dr . Jia Jiaya , Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Distinguished Scientist and Director, Tencent Youtu Lab; and Mr. Peter Lv , Executive Director an d General Manager, Huafa Sports Operations Management Co., Ltd.

Mr. Fong said tourists used to rely on the travel agencies when travelling since the internet was not well developed and many tourists knew little about the outside world.

He pointed out that with drastic changes taken place in tourists’ demand, the number of people choosing free and independent travel increased greatly. In order to develop high quality tourism, the tourism industry needs to better serve the tourists by providing them with products that meet their demand.

Dr . Jia said with the use of technology being improved in various industries, technology is poised to be a major driver for the tourism industry in the next five to ten years. For instance, powered by the artificial intelligence, smart recommendations for tourism sites and route planning will allow people of different background and ages to receive recommendations for travel based on their own interest.

Mr. Lv said sports will play a more important role in promoting the development of the tourism industry.

He takes marathon as an example. A round 1,500 marathon races were held in China in 2018, attracting more than 5 million people to attend. In Zhuhai, about 60-70 percent of participants of races held by Huafa Sports are not from the local area.

He hopes his company will have the chance to hold a marathon race on the Hong Kong Zhuhai Macao Bridge.

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