The 14th Macao International Tourism Industry Expo Kicks Off, Boosting Global Tourism Cooperation

The 14th Macao International Tourism (Industry) Expo has recently been held at The Venetian Macao Convention and Exhibition Center, attracting participants from 59 countries and regions, over 700 tourism-related enterprises and official institutions, as well as more than 600 invited buyers from home and abroad. According to People’s Daily, the expo has become an important platform for Macao to integrate into global tourism cooperation and showcase its cultural and tourism charm.

Hosted by the Tourism Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government, this year’s expo takes "Gather the World, See the Future of Tourism" as its theme, covering an exhibition area of 30,000 square meters with more than 1,500 booths. It features five highlights, including "APEC Empowerment, Multi-destination Travel", "International Orientation, Diversified Expansion", "Technology and Low-Altitude Drive", "One Expo, Two Places, Medical-Tourism Integration" and "Cultural and Creative Attraction, Captivating Generation Z".

In a bid to further expand the international source market, the Tourism Bureau of the Macao SAR Government, for the first time, collaborated with the Chinese Cultural Centers established by China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism in Central Asian countries to organize tourism industry representatives from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and other countries to inspect Macao’s cultural and tourism resources during the expo. According to Xinhua News Agency, this initiative has laid a solid foundation for Macao to strengthen ties with Central Asian tourism markets.

Macao’s tourism industry has maintained a steady and positive development momentum this year. According to People’s Daily, the number of visitors to Macao exceeded 10 million in the first quarter, among which international visitors were initially estimated to exceed 750,000. This robust growth has laid a solid foundation for the continuous recovery and high-quality development of Macao’s tourism industry.

In an interview, Ao Ieong U, Director of the Tourism Bureau of the Macao SAR Government, stated that cities in the Greater Bay Area cooperate and promote each other. "We hope to launch more ‘multi-destination travel’ projects in the future, give full play to the overall effect of the Greater Bay Area on the basis of existing good cooperation, and attract more international tourists," she said.

To enrich the expo’s connotation and promote in-depth exchanges, more than 130 activities were held during the event, including domestic and foreign tourism promotions and industry forums. These activities not only provided a platform for participants to share resources and seek cooperation, but also further enhanced Macao’s influence as an international tourism and leisure center, injecting new vitality into the global tourism industry’s recovery and development.