News

Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) held its Annual Press Conference today (18 January) and announced that Macao’s total visitor arrivals in 2016 hit a record of 30 million and more, slightly up by 0.8% from a year earlier. Regardless of the minor increase in total visitor arrivals last year, the sum of overnight-stay visitors outweighed that of same-day visitors for the first time over the last ten years, registering a year-on-year increase of nearly 10%. Looking forward in 2017, MGTO will complete its formulation of the "Macao Tourism Industry Development Master Plan” and carry out different new and ongoing projects to ensure diversified and sustainable development of Macao’s tourism industry, in parallel with the tourism development goals in the Five-Year Development Plan formulated by the SAR Government and its progress of building Macao into a World Centre of Tourism and Leisure.
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The Institute for Tourism Studies “Career Day 2017” was held on 18 January at IFT Taipa Campus. The event aimed to provide more information on the employment trends and prospects in the tourism and hospitality industry for graduating students, thus increasing their chances of success in job hunting.
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For the implementation of Section 2b), Article 10, Law 4/95/M of 12 June, Consumer Council on 17 January collects prices of fresh pork from wet markets and supermarkets for consumers’ reference. The mentioned data collected during 11 January to 17 January are used for comparing the average selling price of the same products from Zhuhai. The relevant data has been uploaded to the Council’s website for consumers’ reference.
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Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that 30% of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments reported a year-on-year growth in receipts in November 2016 owing to the Grand Prix and the Food Festival, up by 4 percentage points from October. Among them, 55% of the Chinese Restaurants showed a year-on-year rise in receipts, up by 6 percentage points from October, with the corresponding proportions of Western Restaurants (35%) and Japanese & Korean Restaurants (25%) increasing by 9 and 13 percentage points respectively from the previous month. Meanwhile, 50% of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments recorded a year-on-year decline in receipts, similar to that in October, with the corresponding proportions of Japanese & Korean Restaurants and Chinese Restaurants falling by 13 and 6 percentage points from the previous month.
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The Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region (Macao SAR) was informed by the Embassy of Tunisia in Beijing that holders of the Macao SAR Passport travelling to Tunisia in organized touristic group of five people or above and possessing proof of hotel accommodation and air ticket will be exempted from visa requirement for a maximum stay of 30 days when entering Tunisia.
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Consumer Council conducted its latest ‘Supermarket price survey’ in January on 17 January for the implementation of Section 2b), Article 10, Law 4/95/M of 12 June. Surveyed locations included supermarkets near Iao Hon Market and the Border Gate area (Portas do Cerco ) in N. Sra. de Fátima Parish.
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The Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Leong Vai Tac, today said gaming tax was not the only element to be considered in determining the competiveness of Macao’s gaming industry.
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Consumer Council conducted its third ‘Supermarket price survey’ in January on 16 January for the implementation of Section 2b), Article 10, Law 4/95/M of 12 June. Surveyed locations included supermarkets near Areia Preta, Mong Há and Avenida de Venceslau de Morais in N. Sra. de Fátima Parish.
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In recent years, the University of Macau (UM) has initiated a series of curriculum reforms with the aim of producing more outstanding graduates. The outcome has been very encouraging. UM has completed the admission process for students under the Principals’ Recommended Admission Scheme for the 2017/2018 academic year. This year, 450 outstanding students applied to UM through the scheme, up 10 per cent from last year. 398 of them have confirmed their acceptance of the offers from UM, and among them 59 are ranked No 1 in their secondary schools. All students admitted through the Principals’ Recommended Admission Scheme will receive scholarships.UM places great emphasis on providing special training for outstanding students. In the new academic year, the university plans to arrange for recipients of the University of Macau Grand Lotus Scholarship and the University of Macau Golden Lotus Scholarship to enter the Honours College in their first year of study with exemption from exams. The students will receive special guidance and training from the deans and professors in their faculties. These opportunities aim to help outstanding students achieve their full potential so they can better serve Macao after graduation. These students not only excel academically; they are also talented in different areas. They have won awards at various local and international competitions. Many of them are also actively involved in community service.In recent years, UM has made a great effort to build a strong faculty team and enhance its teaching and research. Having established a task force, the university has launched a series of curriculum and academic reforms and will continue to do so in order to attract more local students by offering more programmes that interest them. In terms of course design, UM adopts interactive techniques to increase students’ interest and level of engagement. UM has also recruited many outstanding faculty members from around the world, in an effort to expand students’ horizons and help them develop a new mindset. UM believes that admitting outstanding students will go a long way towards improving its teaching and research.
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