The government tourism bureau has hosted business visitors from a variety of places on familiarization tours in Macau as part of its overall marketing efforts.
These businesspeople visited Macau to take the opportunity of participating in the 11th Macau International Travel (Industry) Expo (MITE) held over the weekend. There were several hundreds of these visitors, the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) underlined.
Besides attending the main expo and auxiliary seminars and symposia, they were taken by the MGTO on a tour of Macau. These visitors, from places such as Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Korea, were shown to local World Heritage sites, tourism facilities and community lifestyle sites.
Meanwhile, stakeholders from the tourism industries in these origins participated in site inspections organized by the MGTO to see tourists’ attractions as well as community and resort facilities, besides conducting business negotiations.
Members from several associations and entities, such as the UNESCO Creative City Network, also conducted site inspections in Macau during the MITE period.
During the same weekend, culinary experts from 23 UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy gathered at the MITE to showcase their skills and cuisine. A total of 24 sessions were held over the three days, with host Macau showing two cuisines: Macanese and Cantonese.
Chef Antonieta Manhão from the Macanese Gastronomic Brotherhood and Chef Li Weichang from the Macau Cuisine Association maneuvered the two cuisines, respectively.
According to the MGTO, the showcase is the largest of its kind to date. “This year, with Creative Cities of Gastronomy from Asia, Oceania, Latin and North America, Europe and the Middle East, we [have hosted] our largest City of Gastronomy Showcase to date,” MGTO director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes said.
Food items prepared by these culinary professionals were offered for public tasting at the expo, while videos highlighting these cities were played on the site. “Residents and visitors [had] a close encounter with the cities’ enchanting flavors and culinary arts exemplified by the chefs,” the MGTO noted in a statement.
Chefs from Popayán (Colombia), Tsuruoka and Usuki (Japan), Mérida (Mexico), Santa Maria da Feira (Portugal), Phuket (Thailand) and San Antonio (USA) joined a team of chefs from The Venetian Macao, MGM Macau and Sofitel Macau at Ponte 16 to exchange and share their culinary insights and skills.
In addition, these chefs enjoyed the chance to experience fishery skills and made salted fish in Coloane for half a day as part of their familiarization tour.
