Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes told reporters on Friday that her office is considering holding a “Macao Week” in the northern port city of Qingdao in August, adding that MGTO has also been discussing the date of such an event with the Wuhan and Changsha municipal authorities to be held in September and October respectively.
Senna Fernandes made the remarks after the opening ceremony of the “Lohas Weekend 2022” in Macau Tower.
LOHAS is an acronym for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability.
Senna Fernandes said that since Qingdao’s municipal government hopes that the “Macao Week” will be held there, MGTO will send staff to visit the city this month, adding that its environment and climate will be amenable in August, so her office is considering planning to hold the event in the city during that month. However, the decision will be made after the visit to Qingdao, she said. She also said that her office has had discussions with the city governments of Wuhan and Changsha, which suggested holding the “Macao Week” in their cities in September and October respectively.
Qingdao is the city with the highest GDP in Shandong province. Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province. Changsha is the capital of Hunan province.
MGTO chief hopes visitor rise thanks to 7-day NAT validity
Meanwhile, Senna Fernandes said she hopes that Macau’s number of visitor arrivals can recover after the government’s announcement on June 1 of the extended seven-day validity period for nucleic acid test (NAT) results for arrivals from Guangdong, adding that according to past experience, the number of visitor arrivals during the implementation of the seven-day validity period for NAT results should range between 30,000 to 40,000 a day. She also said that MGTO will continue to launch different discounts for air tickets and hotel bookings, in order to attract more tourists to visit Macau during the summer holidays.
At the same, Senna Fernandes underlined that her office did not receive or send out any messages according to which visitors between Hong Kong and Macau will not have to undergo quarantine upon arrival in either city starting from August.
MGTO expects ‘Food Festival for The 5 Creative Cities of Gastronomy’ to be held in Sept
Moreover, Senna Fernandes told reporters on Saturday on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of a food fair in Taipa Village that a new programme, called “Food Festival for The Five Creative Cities of Gastronomy”, is planned for Sai Van Lake Square in September, adding that the programme will be co-hosted with the mainland’s four Creative Cities of Gastronomy. However, the details still need to be confirmed, she said.
The four mainland cities listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) are Chengdu, Huai’an, Shunde, and Yangzhou.
Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan province. Huai’an is a prefecture-level city in the central part of Jiangsu province. Shunde, also known as Shuntak in Cantonese, is a district of the city of Foshan in Guangdong province, located in the Greater Bay Area (GBA). Yangzhou is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu province.
Senna Fernandes said that the idea for the programme was suggested by an association that hopes to give the features of Macau’s gastronomy a new perspective, adding that the Macau Food Festival will not be replaced by it.
Senna Fernandes said the reason the new food festival was being considered for September is that it is usually the month of hosting the international firework competition but that Macau currently does not have conditions to hold it, so in order to raise Macau’s tourism attractiveness, her office was weighing the possible launch of other activities.
Senna Fernandes also said that if the programme is successful, MGTO would invite “foodies” from overseas to come to Macau and host with them a food festival here, such as a cooking performance, provided that COVID-19 border control measures between Macau and foreign countries have been eased at that time.
MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes talks to reporters on Friday after the opening ceremony of the “Lohas Weekend 2022” at Macau Tower.
Photo courtesy of TDM
