Expanding the source of tourist arrivals is Macau’s priority this year, such as by catering for the culinary needs of Muslim travellers from the nation’s northwest and overseas, especially from Southeast Asia, the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO), civic leader Choi Seng Hon said yesterday, was preparing halal food certification programmes in conjunction with the local tourism industry, in the hope of introducing halal-certified food to local restaurants, aiming to provide more choices for tourists from the Islamic world.
Choi did not say when MGTO expected the halal certification scheme to be launched locally.
Halal – understood as something permitted by Islamic law and doctrine – certification, according to the RINA network, applies to the food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical sectors and attests that a product is manufactured in full compliance with the precepts of Islamic Law, so that it does not include any “forbidden” components and has in no way been in contact with any substances or objects considered “impure” by Islam, including pork, the meat of carnivorous animals, birds of prey, reptiles, amphibians and insects, the meat and derivatives of animals which are normally admissible but were improperly slaughtered, blood and carcasses, as well as alcohol and other intoxicants.
The government-appointed Taipa and Coloane Community Service Consultative Council held yesterday a closed-door meeting with an MGTO senior official at the Seac Pai Van Community Complex in Coloane regarding MGTO’s direction of promoting the integrated development of tourism between the Guangdong-Macau In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin and Macau, as well as the mainland’s policy of multiple-round-trip Hengqin-Macau tour groups, according to which mainlanders joining Hengqin-Macau tour groups are now able to make multiple round trips between the two places within seven days using the same group travel permit via the Hengqin checkpoint.
Choi, the consultative council’s deputy convener, made the remarks during a post-press conference.
Choi quoted the official as pointing out that the public Macau Foundation (FM) has launched a financial support programme to encourage local associations to organise “Hengqin-Macau tours”, so as to motivate local residents to learn more about the cooperation zone’s livelihood conditions and development. According to Choi, during the meeting, several of his fellow councillors expressed concern about the restrictions under the nation’s new policy for Hengqin-Macau tours, such as multiple round trips between the two places within seven days for two-person tours with a maximum of 40 persons per tour.
Yesterday’s meeting also discussed Macau’s tourism promotion and explored the nation’s expansion of eight more mainland cities under the central government’s Individual Visit Scheme (IVS), as well as publicity targeting potential foreign visitor arrivals. The MGTO official said during the meeting that, according to council member Leong Chon Kit, in terms of foreign tourism promotion, it would target publicity according to the preferences of different visitor segments on social media platforms and intended to cooperate with airlines to promote the city’s tourism.
The eight cities added to the Individual Visit Scheme comprise Shanxi province’s Taiyuan, Heilongjiang province’s Harbin, Gansu province’s Lanzhou, Qinghai province’s Xining, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region’s Hohhot, the Tibet Autonomous Region’s Lhasa, the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region’s Yinchuan, and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region’s Urumqi, leading to the total number of IVS cities to Macau to 59.
Tourism cooperation between Macau and Hengqin was also mentioned at the closed-door meeting, Leong said, during which his fellow councillors urged MGTO to design itineraries with different themes, such as festivals, weddings and gourmet cuisine, to attract more visitors, while regarding the opportunities and competition for Macau’s tourism industry arising from the policy of inbound and outbound tours, he underlined that some councillors were concerned about local tourism businesses’ ability to cope with rising competition and adapting to the multiple-round-trip Hengqin-Macau tour group policy, with most of them stressing that cooperation and development between Macau and Hengqin was crucial for the local tourism industry to promote exchanges and cooperation and to enhance the level of tourism services, so as to provide more diversified tourism experiences for tourists.
Tourism chief vows to make good use of ‘Culture City of East Asia’ business card
Meanwhile, the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) has recently been awarded the title of Culture City of East Asia 2025, and MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes briefed reporters on the sidelines of the annual Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia expo yesterday about next year’s event schedule, including exchanges and cooperation with some cities in South Korea and Japan, in which MGTO is considering inviting the relevant cities to Macau to take part in local events, such as float parades and other activities related to culture-related approaches. Speaking to the media at The Venetian Macao, Senna Fernandes pledged to make good use of the “Culture City of East Asia” business card to promote Macau, promoting more “tourism + culture” and “tourism + sports” programmes to attract more foreign visitors to Macau.
A group of visitors poses in front of Casino Lisboa on Praça de Ferreira do Amaral yesterday. – Photo: Yuki Lei
