The Macao Institute for Tourism Studies’ (IFTM) Global Centre of Tourism Education and Training held a virtual training programme on “Capacity Building for Sustainable Cultural Heritage Management” for Portuguese-speaking countries (PSCs), according to a recent statement from the tertiary education institute.
The two-day programme was held on June 14-15, according to the statement.
The statement noted that with Macau being an economic and trade cooperation service platform between China and the PSCs, the programme was aimed at Portuguese-speaking tourism professionals such as decision-makers in tourism ministries and national tourism organisations and those responsible for the “oversight and management of cultural heritage resources”.
The statement underlined that with support from the Permanent Secretariat of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and PSCs (Macau), seventeen participants from seven Portuguese-speaking countries participated in the training, namely Angola, Cabo Verde (Cape Verde), Guinea-Bissau, Portugal, Timor-Leste (East Timor), Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe. Observers from various Belt and Road (B&R) countries participated as observers in the virtual conference, such as tourism or education professionals from Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Iran.
The programme, the statement noted, focused on themes such as Cultural Heritage Management and Heritage Impact Assessment to ensure the long-term sustainability of cultural heritage resources. IFTM Lecturer Vicky Chen Zhaoyu and Assistant Professor Sharif Shams Imon gave an overview on “the need to understand heritage and the application of Heritage Impact Assessment”, while Carla Figueiredo from the Cultural Affairs Bureau’s (IC) Department of Cultural Heritage presented examples on the management and conservation of the city’s heritage.
This event marked the first time that the IFTM centre organised a training virtually for the PSCs, receiving positive participant feedback, the statement said.
This handout photo recently provided by IFTM shows participants in the online tourism training programme for Portuguese-speaking countries (PSCs) on “Capacity Building for Sustainable Cultural Heritage Management”, which took place on June 14-15.
