The Office of the Secretary for Economy and Finance (GSEF) announced in a statement yesterday that the ongoing 11th Global Tourism Economy Forum (GTEF) in Harbin is discussing new quality productive forces driving the tourism industry’s innovation.
According to the statement, the three-day forum, which started on Monday, is jointly hosted by the People’s Government of Heilongjiang Province and Macau’s Global Tourism Economy Research Centre, noting that this is the first time that the forum is being held outside Macau.
The forum, themed “New Quality Productive Forces: Powering the Global Tourism Economy”, has brought together tourism industry leaders from around the world to jointly explore new driving forces for the development of the tourism economy, the statement said.
Secretary for Economy and Finance Anton Tai Kin Ip noted in a speech during yesterday’s opening ceremony, which was held one day after the forum had begun, that holding the forum outside Macau for the first time marks a significant milestone in its development, demonstrating its “One Centre, One Base, One Platform”* policy’s expanding influence and the vast potential of the national tourism economy.
Macau will continue to leverage its unique advantage of “being backed by the motherland and connected to the world” to advance its “1+4”** strategy for diversified industrial development, Tai said.
Edmund Ho Hau Wah, vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee and chairman of the GTEF, said in a speech that the global tourism economy is at a critical juncture of restructuring its landscape. The forum aims to collectively explore pathways for high-quality development, Ho stressed.
Centred on the core of new quality productive forces, according to Ho, the forum facilitates discussions on how technological innovation can reshape the industry’s structure, how cultural depth can enhance brand value, how investments can stimulate market vitality, and how cross-border collaboration can open new development spaces.
According to the statement, the forum, which ends today, is holding discussions around four major themes: the ice-and-snow economy, industrial innovation, cultural empowerment, and brand building. The forum included yesterday a special session for Macau tourism promotion, chaired by Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes. The session showcased Macau’s achievements in cross-sector integration under its “tourism+”*** initiative, aiming to enhance the international image of Macau as a World Centre of Tourism and Leisure, the statement said.
The statement said that the forum yesterday also included a sub-venue at the Grand Lisboa Palace in Cotai, adding that live streaming enabling interaction between the two locations aimed to deepen regional cooperation.
* The Macau government’s “One Centre, One Platform, One Base” concept refers to Macau aiming to develop itself into a World Centre of Tourism and Leisure, a commercial and trade cooperation service platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, and an exchange and cooperation base with Chinese culture as its mainstream and co-existence of different cultures. – MPD
** Appropriately diversified development refers to the framework of the government’s “1+4” appropriate economic diversification model, which aims to consolidate and diversify the development of the city’s tourism and leisure industry while putting special emphasis on promoting the development of four diversified industries, namely 1) big health, 2) modern finance, 3) high-tech, and 4) MICE as well as culture and sports. – MPD
*** The “+” symbolises integration, cross-sector collaboration, and added value. The goal is to move from a transactional model (“visiting a place”) to a transformational one (“deeply engaging with a place’s essence”). – DeepSeek
Edmund Ho Hau Wah, vice-chairman of the CPPCC National Committee and chairman of the GTEF, addresses yesterday’s session of the three-day forum in Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang Province, yesterday. Ho was the first chief executive of the Macau SAR. – Photo courtesy of TDM
