MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes (upper left corner of the image) takes part in yesterday’s virtual meeting organised by PATA. Photo: MGTO
The Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) said in a statement yesterday that it was invited to spotlight Macau’s “destination glamour through a fun-filled programme” as a destination partner featured in the final week (July 13-17) of the Dream to Travel Festival, a virtual event launched by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).
According to the statement, MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes joined one of the festival’s major highlights – “Dream to Travel Forum” yesterday for a thought-provoking discussion themed around “Infinite Possibilities” with other guest speakers.
To provide a digital platform for members of the travel trade community to expand horizons and connect with each other during the global pandemic, PATA launched the Dream to Travel Festival spanning four weeks online from June 22 to July 17, the statement noted.
Each week’s programme has been dedicated to a specific theme – Trust, Courage, Wellbeing and Infinite Possibilities – and to one of the four featured destinations: Thailand, Malaysia, Nepal, and Macau. The event programme consists of three major highlights, namely “Dream to Travel Forums”, “Live Experiences” and “Digital Showroom”, enabling participants, according to the statement, to gain new insights into tourism prospects and the latest updates on the featured destinations’ tourism resources and products, while offering them opportunities to connect with their industry counterparts.
MGTO is featured as the destination partner of the festival this week. Senna Fernandes joined and delivered welcome remarks at the Dream to Travel Forum themed as “Infinite Possibilities” via a virtual meeting platform yesterday, the statement pointed out.
A one-on-one dialogue ensued between Senna Fernandes and Carmen Roberts, a BBC presenter, about Macau’s tourism recovery plan in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Macau’s tourism chief then joined PATA Chief Executive Officer Mario Hardy and the general manager for Hong Kong and Macau of Visa, Maaike Steinebach, to discuss the tourism industry’s pursuit of innovation, progress and possibilities, and shed light on the challenges and opportunities awaiting the travel trade, the statement said.
As its contribution to the festival, “MGTO presents three live-experience sessions themed as ‘Cultural Macau’, ‘Eat around Macau’ and ‘Adventure Macau’ to showcase, through a different lens, the unique charm of the UNESCO World Heritage Site – ‘The Historic Centre of Macau’, the diverse culinary culture of Macau as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, as well as the interactive art space ‘teamLab SuperNature’ and the sky-high adventures at Macau Tower,” the statement said.
Furthermore, according to the statement, MGTO rolls out a range of virtual games and giveaways as well as showing times of promotional videos about the diverse travel experiences and facilities Macau has to offer, to familiarise participants with the city’s tourism resources.
Macau ‘ready to go’
MGTO’s “Macau Ready Go” promotional video showcases Macau as an “ideal destination gearing up to welcome visitors from around the world in the future”. MGTO also spotlights the “Macau Ready Go” e-platform which collates the special administrative region’s special tourism-and-related offers, and highlights Macau’s battle against the novel coronavirus pandemic together with the rest of the world through a documentary video, the statement noted.
Through its Digital Showroom, PATA seeks to provide the travel trade with networking opportunities. MGTO invited a multitude of local hotels and travel agencies to build their profiles in the Digital Showroom to showcase their products and services via multimedia tools. The Digital Showroom is also equipped with a messaging system that enables discussion among industry participants from near and far for collaboration and partnership arrangements, the statement pointed out.
Founded in 1951, the Pacific Asia Travel Association is a nonprofit association dedicated to fostering the sustainable tourism development across the Asia Pacific region. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, PATA launched the virtual event “Dream to Travel Festival”, providing an online platform for the travel trade community worldwide to meet experts, gain fresh insights and showcase products from across the Asia Pacific region and beyond. Access to the festival is free for all. For registration and further information, visit: http://dreamtotravel.pata.org.
