12 Nov, 2020

8th Macao International Travel Industry Expo balances physical and virtual formats for the first time

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9 November 2020 (Source: media release) – Organized by Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) and coordinated by Macau Travel Agency Association, the 8th Macao International Travel (Industry) Expo (referred to as the “Expo” or “MITE”) culminated in success on Sunday (8 November). The Expo was joined by 188 Mainland hosted buyers offline as well as close to 120 international hosted and professional buyers online, who liaised with on-site exhibitors at over 5,800 business matching sessions and signed four sets of contracts. Close to 23,000 spectators were admitted to the Expo.

The 8th MITE was held at Cotai Expo of the Venetian Macao from 6 to 8 November 2020. The exhibition floor covered a total area of 22,000 square meters, accommodating over 660 booths. The Expo brought together the physical and virtual exhibitions in cloud series this year for the first time. There were 351 on-site exhibitors from Macao and the Mainland, whereas close to 50 exhibitors marked their presence at the virtual exhibition, mainly comprising tourism offices and entities from different countries and regions.

Six major highlights to spur economic revival in tourism

To spur economic revival in the tourism sector, the Expo featured six major highlights including local and Mainland tour products for sale, innovative and interactive confluence of virtual “Cloud” series and physical exhibitions, focusing on tourism cooperation and product development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, showcasing Portuguese-speaking countries as a Sino-Portuguese exchange platform, “Community Cultural Creative Achievement Exhibition” and “MAK MAK Pavilion”, as well as manifesting brand stories of “Distinctive Shops”.

In parallel with pandemic prevention measures, the Expo offered an appointment scheduling system online for the public this year to conduct staggered admission hours. The three-day Expo attracted 22,921 spectators in total. The Expo was also joined by 188 Mainland hosted buyers offline and close to 120 international hosted and professional buyers online, who liaised with on-site exhibitors at 5,859 business matching sessions.

Cloud series

A total of 12 live streams were conducted by two KOLs at “Cloud Live Broadcast” during the three-day Expo, participated by over 40 on-site exhibitors. To date (9 November), the playback counts neared 120 million. The peak count of concurrent viewers reached 262,000.

39 online exhibitors carried out promotions at “Cloud Promotion” during the three days, engaging 1,475 on-site spectators. 

Facilitated by “Cloud Contract Signing” this year, four sets of contracts were signed electronically over long distance and multilaterally, or concurrently online and offline, involving 45 enterprises. Assistant Director-General of Economic Affairs Department of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao SAR, Zhang Jianhua, MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes and President of Macau Travel Agency Association, Alex Lao, witnessed the signing ceremonies among other guests.

Industry operators keenly promote their products at Macao Street and Greater Bay Area Tourism Street

To bolster local industry operators’ confidence in spurring economic revival in the sector, the Expo exempted all local exhibitors from registration fee this year. Over 130 local exhibitors joined the Expo, 1.2 times more than that of last edition. The Macao Street featured over 200 exhibition booths, 1.6 times more than last year, with exhibitors mainly selling travel packages, hotel accommodations, buffet tickets, dining coupons, signature products and souvenirs. Over 70 tourism businesses from across nine cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area marked their presence at the“Greater Bay Area Tourism Street”, offering residents a wealth of signature products and souvenirs from their destinations, mainly through a showcase of their brands.

Continue to deliver a Sino-Portuguese exchange platform

Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute set up the “Pavilion of Portuguese-speaking Countries Products”, to promote Macao’s business environment and products from Portuguese-speaking countries, etc. In addition, the Promotion Seminar of Tourism Products for Portuguese Speaking Countries was jointly organized by MGTO and the Permanent Secretariat of Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (Macao) on the opening day of MITE, to showcase tourism resources and products from Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Portugal as well as São Tomé and Príncipe. The pavilion and seminar were set to promote Sino-Portuguese exchange and cooperation in tourism, delivering Macao’s role as a platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.

Fusion of cultural, creative and tourism elements

The Pavilion of “Distinctive Shops”, “Community Cultural Creative Achievement Exhibition” and “MAK MAK Pavilion” were unveiled at this edition of the Expo to foster concerted development of the tourism, cultural and creative industries, manifest the charm of Macao in relevant areas and boost the economic vitality of the communities. The Pavilion of “Distinctive Shops” was a debut at the Expo this year, while authorized souvenirs themed as Macao Tourism Mascot MAK MAK were promoted and sold at the “MAK MAK Pavilion”. A lucky draw with capsules was set up at “MAK MAK Pavilion”. Close to 3,300 visitors joined the lucky draw through an adequate amount of expenditure fulfilled at the Expo. Around 40 grand prizes, 600 big prizes and 2,600 consolation prizes were given out.

Presentations spotlight different destinations

The Expo staged a total of 25 offline presentation sessions including the Destination (Macau) tourism promotion, Destination (Pidu District, Chengdu) tourism promotion, 2020 “Sichuan, More than Pandas” Sichuan Culture & Tourism Promotion & Sichuan-Chongqing Culture & Tourism Promotion Fair, “Meet Romance • Stone Forest on Sea” Naqin Peninsula Geological Ocean Park, as well as the Culture & Tourism Promotion Fair for the Famous Counties of Sichuan Province, among other sessions.

The Expo adopted a series of preventive measures against the pandemic, requiring visitors to present Macau Health Code and have their temperature checked upon entry, as well as to wear mask and maintain one-meter social distance. Venue disinfection, crowd management and other regulatory measures about public catering were carried out as well.

The 8th MITE was supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China, organized by MGTO and coordinated by Macau Travel Agency Association. The co-organizers of the Expo include Cultural Affairs Bureau, Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute, Macao Chamber of Commerce, General Union of Neighbors Association of Macau, Macao Federation of Trade Unions, Women’s General Association of Macau, Association of Returned Overseas Chinese Macau, Association of Macao Tourist Agents and Travel Industry Council of Macau.

For more information about the 8th MITE, please visit MITE’s official website: www.mitexpo.mo, WeChat ID and Facebook page.