News

Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) organized an exciting Tray Race and the World Tourism Day banquet to celebrate "World Tourism Day 2008" today (September 27).
Earlier in the day, Director of MGTO, João Manuel Costa Antunes and Deputy Directors Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes and Manuel Pires presented welcome gifts to lucky tourist William Hilder and his wife Katherine from Australia at the Macau Ferry Terminal. Souvenirs were also distributed to visitors at MGTO Information Counters throughout the day. William Hilder told that today is the birthday of his wife. He purposely arranged this trip to Hong Kong and Macau as her birthday gift. They are going to visit the Macau World Heritage and experience the nightlife entertainment of Macau. The traditional Tray Race was held in the afternoon, where waiters and waitresses ran down the stoned-path from the Ruins of St Paul's to Senado Square carrying a tray with a bottle of beer on it. The race attracted a record number of participants this year, totaling 185 waiters and waitresses from 29 hotels and restaurants in Macau. Crowds of visitors and locals cheered for the participants. The winner of the men's division was Tyrone Manlapaz Chan from Venetian Macao and the winner of the women's division was Hu Xiao Qing from Grand Lisboa. The Best Costume Awards went toYu Hong Liang of Holiday Inn and Annabelle Aquino Numata of Sofitel Macau at Ponte 16. In the evening, MGTO held a dinner banquet, attended by Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Dr Chui Sai On, to celebrate "World Tourism Day". "The theme of World Tourism Day this year is “Tourism Responding to the Challenge of Climate Change”. Climate Change is a universal challenge and tourism is one of the few sectors that cut across a whole range of economic and social activities. It is furthermore a key economic and job driver in the developing world and therefore we can and must play an active role to tackle the challenge of climate response," said João Manuel Costa Antunes.
World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), in the third session of its General Assembly in Spain (September 1979), decided to commemorate September 27 as "World Tourism Day" each year. This is the 29th year since the celebrations commenced in 1980. The main purpose of "World Tourism Day" is to foster awareness among the international community of the importance of tourism and its social, cultural, political and economic values. Each year, World Tourism Organization selects a different theme for "World Tourism Day". This year's theme is “Tourism Responding to the Challenge of Climate Change”. The host country for "World Tourism Day 2008" is Peru and official celebrations were held on September 27. Many other countries and regions also carried out activities to celebrate the day. This press release is available on http://industry.macautourism.gov.mo/en/pressroom/index.php?page_id=172
…

Small-and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) affected by the recent typhoon could apply for interest-free loans of up to 300,000 patacas next week, the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Francis Tam Pak Yuen, said today. Mr Tam disclosed this when he met the press after discussing the effect of Typhoon Hagupit to Macao's businesses with representatives of the Macao Union General of Community Association. Mr Tam said that the Government was concerned about the operation of SMEs, which suffered losses when the typhoon struck Macao a few days ago. The board of Industrial and Commercial Development Fund would hold a meeting on Monday and would begin to process loans application on the next day, said Mr Tam. He said that affected businesses only had to provide information of their business registration, losses suffered and usage of loans when applying for loans. Staff of Macao Economic Services will meet with affected business owners and help them apply. Mr Tam also disclosed that Macao Chamber of Commerce had also asked the Government to help SMEs. Mr Tam cut short his trip to Nanning in Guangxi Province to devise measures to help residents and businesses affected by the typhoon.
…

Commissioned by the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macao S.A.R. and conducted by the Institute For Tourism Studies (IFT), a study was completed which aimed at providing reference estimates on the optimal social carrying capacity of Macao’s tourism industry and suggest whether the existing tourism facilities and services are adequate to cope with the rapid growth in visitor arrivals. The survey was divided into 2 parts: The first part consisted of questionnaire interviews, on 44 selected days of 2007 which covered weekdays, weekends and days within the Golden Week periods. Both local residents and visitors were asked to express their perception on crowdedness and satisfaction with environmental quality, local transportation, food & beverage and retail services quality and waiting time, and border clearance performance. A total of 5158 residents and 5120 visitors were sampled. The interview locations included Leal Senado Square, Portas do Cerco, A-Ma Temple, Ruins of St.Paul, Cunha Street, Horta E Costa, Mesquita and New Yaohan. The second part was to collect data and information from government departments and stakeholders in several tourism-related sectors to estimate their full-load capacity. The study covered 8 main services and facilities, namely hotel accommodation, restaurants and dining, buses, taxis, ferries, border clearance, tourist attractions and inbound tour handling. Results from the first part revealed that local residents were generally dissatisfied with the environment and local transportation, and their perception of crowdedness became more intensive with increasing number of visitors. At the same time, visitors had similar perception of crowdedness. Nonetheless, they usually gave a more generous rating than residents to most of the indicators studied. It was found that both residents and visitors became less than satisfied with the crowded surroundings and gave generally lower ratings to the services and facilities when daily average incoming visitors reached a level of 75,537. With increasing number of daily average visitors, residents became more sensitive to crowdedness and issues with local transportation, while visitors became more sensitive to crowdedness, border clearance and environment quality. By using the technique of linear regression, it was estimated that the optimal social carrying capacity of Macao ranged from 69,000 to 79,000 daily visitors. By classifying the visitors according to their place of origin, it was found that visitors from the mainland generally had better evaluations of all services and facilities except border clearance, compared with those from Hong Kong, Taiwan Province and other places. Also, group travellers had better impression about crowdedness and local transportation than the Free Individual Travellers (FITs). Information gathered for the second part revealed that among the 8 facilities studied, namely hotel accommodation, restaurants and dining, buses, taxis, ferries, border clearance, tourist attractions and inbound tour handling, 6 of them could not meet the optimal social carrying capacity. Only restaurants and dining, and border clearance (when all 7 entry points were taken into consideration) stayed above the range. This may serve as a signal that certain sectors may need to enlarge their operation scale to meet the optimal level. However, they may face various challenges including geographical, capital and manpower limitations. As a conclusion, it was found that residents and visitors were sensitive to crowdedness and quality of tourism services and facilities as visitor arrival increased. Government departments and stakeholders may wish to focus on these issues. In view of Macao’s current limitations, one important way of sustaining tourism development is to provide better service to visitors, rather than continuously looking for new markets. Attention should also be given to better management of industry operations and facilities, manpower training, and professional transportation and town planning. For any comments and queries about this survey, please kindly contact the Institute For Tourism Studies.
…

The Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Mr Chui Sai On, vowed today that the Government would spare no efforts in providing medical examination and treatment for students who might have consumed contaminated milk. This followed an earlier Government decision to suspend a milk programme for some kindergarten and primary students, and sent medical teams to these institutions to offer free medical checks for these students. The students would be given a detailed checkup if needed, and the Government would provide them the necessary treatment should any kidney stones be detected, Mr Chui said after attending a conference this morning. The milk programme was initiated by the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau several years ago to provide milk to some kindergarten and primary students every school day. So far one student was found to have kidney stones after consuming milk made from powder suspected to be contaminated with melamine. The Government had started an urgent communication mechanism with health authorities on the Mainland and in Hong Kong after the detection of melamine in some Mainland dairy products.
…

In view of the financial crisis caused by the recent financial difficulties of individual American investment banks, this Authority has indicated in an announcement released earlier that the financial institutions in Macao including banks are in stable conditions and have not been affected at all. Banks in Macao have been adopting sound and prudent measures to manage their activities. Their asset quality is excellent. Capital and liquidity are adequate to ensure their normal operation. This Authority calls upon depositors to keep calm and rational, not to be misled by rumour-mongers. There are rumours circulating through internet and grapevine that some individual banks in Macao are in financial difficulty as affected by the financial crisis. Such rumours are groundless. In fact, all banks in Macao are operating normally under very strict supervision. They are financially sound. None of the banks in Macao encounters any problems of such nature. Inadvertently, this Authority has been informed by certain banks that due to typhoon Hagupit, some branch offices cannot open for business because of flood or power failure, but absolutely not caused by any international financial crisis. This Authority and all banks will stay vigilant, and will continue to enhance the on-going monitoring, management and supervision efforts in order to safeguard the stability and integrity of the Macao banking system.
…

The Board of Directors of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) announced that Macau has been chosen as the host city for PATA Travel Mart 2010. One thousand and five hundred participants are expected to take part in the event. MGTO Director João Manuel Costa Antunes and Deputy Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes were present at PATA’s Board of Directors Meeting held in India. Following the announcement, Antunes expressed, “We are very happy to be the host for PATA Travel Mart 2010 and we are grateful for the support of the Board of Directors of PATA. We will make every effort to ensure this premier travel trade show for Asia Pacific will be a successful one.” “The Macau SAR Government is committed to develop an integrated tourism model to gradually achieve diversification of the tourism industry that would appeal to visitors of different interests from around the world. Macau successfully hosted the 54th PATA Annual Conference in 2005 and the wide accolades we received from the industry proved that Macau has the capability to organize large-scale international conferences. Winning the bid to host PATA Travel Mart for the first time will further showcase our strengths as a host city for international exhibitions and conventions.” PATA Travel Mart is one of the widely recognized travel trade shows for Asia Pacific with a long history. It serves as a travel contracting and networking platform that attracts many high-profile buyers and exhibitors every year. Founded in 1951, PATA is recognized as a leading tourism organization in the Asia Pacific Region. PATA’s membership boasts about 100 government, state and city tourism bodies, more than 70 airlines and cruise lines, and hundreds of travel industry companies. In addition, thousands of travel industry professionals belong to PATA Chapters worldwide. The mission of PATA is to enhance the growth, value and quality of Pacific Asia travel and tourism for the benefit of the membership of PATA. As a non-profit travel industry association, PATA provides a platform for its members to share information and insights for the tourism industry. MGTO has been a member of PATA since 1966 and the PATA Macau Chapter was set up in 1983. Held in Hyderabad of India last week, PATA Travel Mart 2008 attracted over 1,000 trade delegates, comprising 374 global buyers, 715 Asia Pacific sellers and a host of international media. Mainland China sent a strong delegation of 80 buyers and sellers to the Mart as she paves way for the next PATA Travel Mart to be held in Hangzhou in 2009. First-time participants at the Mart were impressed by the professionally fixed appointments and the personalized style of the Mart.
…

Revenue from gaming so far this year is similar to that for the same period last year, the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Mr Tam Pak Yuen, disclosed today. He said despite a slowdown in growth, the Government was still confident revenue would be maintained at its present level. On the recent lay-offs by a gaming operator, Mr Tam said this was not a common occurrence. He said that each gaming company would adjust its human resources accordingly to its business. However, the adjustment should be implemented legally and reasonably, he said, and the aggrieved could bring their complaints to the Labour Affairs Bureau. Mr Tam stressed the gaming industry was in a stable condition. He said he has not heard of any plans for mass lay-offs. If there was any, it would be communicated to the Labour Affairs Bureau, he said. The Bureau was now studying the promotional plans for local gaming staff submitted by the companies, he added.
…

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that in light of the opening of large-scale hotels and gaming facilities, visitor arrivals in package tours continued to grow, together with the increasing number of outbound travels under individual arrangement using services provided by travel agencies, the overall business performance of travel agencies recorded satisfactory growth in 2007. Last year, there were 157 travel agencies in operation, up by 12 establishments compared with 2006. Sales & other receipts totalled MOP3.35 billion, corresponding to a year-on-year increase of 39.2%; gross fixed capital formation dropped by 39.8% to MOP58.48 million. In addition, gross value added, which measures the economic contribution of the sector, soared by 96.3% to MOP470 million. With an increase in the number of travel agencies in operation, the total workforce rose by 30.9% year-on-year to 2,281 at the end of 2007. Expenditure of the travel agencies amounted to MOP3.11 billion, an increase of 34.5% over 2006. In terms of expenditure items, payment for the purchase of tickets, package tours and room reservation (MOP2.63 billion) accounted for 84.7% of the total, up by 29.9% year-on-year; besides, operating expenses (MOP250 million) and compensation of employees (MOP220 million) surged by 77.4% and 57.0% respectively.
…

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the Composite CPI for August 2008 rose by 8.70% year-on-year to 125.79, of which the price indices of Food & non-alcoholic beverages, Health and Clothing & footwear soared by 18.37%, 14.36% and 9.86% respectively. Among the subgroups of Food & non-alcoholic beverages, notable increase was observed in the prices of rice (+74.88%), canned meat (+66.97%), fresh beef (+59.22%), edible oil (+53.73%), fresh water fish (+38.63%), noodles (+35.09%), chilled or frozen pork (+30.37%), fresh pork (+27.63%), salt-water fish (+25.57%) and meals bought away from home (+15.04%). For the subgroups of Health and Clothing & footwear, charges for medical consultation service (+25.43%), clothing materials (+30.30%) and garments for women (+13.71%) registered marked increase. Despite significant increase in the price index of air passenger transport (+16.97%), the index of Transport registered a slow down in year-on-year growth from +12.70% in July to +8.88%, owing to the exemption of consumption tax on automotive fuels and lubricants, as well as lower gasoline prices following the price drop of petroleum in the international market. Notwithstanding the increase in the price indices of LP Gas (+24.00%), charges for maintenance & repair services of dwelling (+17.81%) and rentals for housing (+14.89%), the year-on-year increment of the index of Housing & fuels was similar to that of last month, at 6.8%, benefiting from the electricity subsidy provided by the Government. On the other hand, the price indices of Education and Communication decreased by 5.83% and 5.04% respectively year-on-year due to higher government subsidies to students studying in schools that did not join the free education network and lower charges of mobile phone service. The CPI-A and CPI-B for August 2008 were 127.95 and 125.10, up by 8.99% and 8.57% respectively year-on-year. The Composite CPI for August 2008 edged up by 0.02% month-to-month, with the price indices of Recreation & culture and Housing & fuels rising by 1.69% and 0.95% respectively, on account of higher charges for outbound package tours during Summer Holiday and rising rentals for housing. On the contrary, the index of Transport recorded a 3.73% decrease, as a result of the exemption of consumption tax on automotive fuels and lubricants. Meanwhile, the CPI-A increased by 0.04% whereas the CPI-B decreased by 0.02% over the preceding month. The average Composite CPI for January to August went up by 8.99% over the same period of 2007. For the 12 months ended August 2008, the Composite CPI rose by 8.17% over the preceding period. The Composite CPI reflects the impacts of price changes on the general population. The CPI-A relates to about 49% of households, which have an average monthly expenditure of MOP3,000 to MOP9,999. The CPI-B relates to about 31% of households, which have an average monthly expenditure of MOP10,000 to MOP19,999.
…

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that visitor arrivals totalled 2,583,372 in August 2008, a year-on-year increase of 8.5%. Visitors from Mainland China (1,488,084) and Hong Kong (757,784) rose by 10.6% and 5.2% respectively, while those from Taiwan, China (112,454) decreased by 7.0%. Same-day visitors took up 52.6% of the total arrivals, at 1,357,855. The majority of the visitors came from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, China, which accounted for 57.6%, 29.3% and 4.4% of the total respectively. Among the Mainland visitors, 603,865 (40.6%) travelled to Macao under the Individual Visit Scheme, down by 6.9% year-on year. In the first eight months of 2008, visitor arrivals reached 20,172,569, up by 17.1% year-on-year. Visitors from Mainland China (11,797,357) and Hong Kong went up by 25.1% and 0.9% respectively, while those from Taiwan, China dropped by 5.0%. Furthermore, same-day visitors made up 52.9% of the total arrivals, at 10,662,177. Analyzed by mode of transport, visitor arrivals by sea increased by 12.4% over the first eight months of 2007 to 6,467,525. Among them, 5,513,046 arrived at the Outer Harbour (+1.4%), with 57.6% from Hong Kong and 22.7% from Mainland China. Visitor arrivals by land grew by 19.3% to 12,566,636. Visitors arriving through the Border Gate increased by 14.7% to 11,885,917 and the majority were visitors from Mainland China (79.9%) and Hong Kong (14.4%). In addition, visitor arrivals by air totalled 1,138,408, up by 20.9% over the first eight months of 2007. Visitors arriving at the Macao International Airport rose by 19.3% to 1,114,233, with those from Taiwan, China (35.3%), Southeast Asia (29.8%) and Mainland China (22.2%) as the major users.
…