Corporate Bits | Airport traffic reached 5.5m in 2014

To celebrate the festival season, a Portuguese Guitar and Fado band performed at the Macau International Airport (MIA) from Dec. 23 to 25. Santa Claus was at the airport giving Christmas sweets to all young travelers.
According to a press release issued by MIA, passenger traffic developed rapidly throughout the whole year. The single day aircraft movement and passenger traffic both recorded stable growth. During 2014, MIA carried over 5,480,000 passengers and 53,000 aircraft movements, recording an increase of 9% and 7% respectively compared to 2013. The positive tendency had been maintained for four quarters.  For the first quarter, MIA received over 1.28 million passengers and recorded 12,500 aircraft movements, both up 10% compared to the same quarter last year.
For the second quarter, MIA’s passenger volume surpassed 1.32 million and aircraft movements over 12,900, representing a 7% increase respectively compared to the same period of last year, which indicates that the growth of the passenger market has stabilized, while the frequencies and the destinations added are becoming more diverse.

Galaxy Macau countdown party

Galaxy Macau and its guests celebrated the arrival of 2015 with a party at East Square, featuring an amazing giveaway of 15 pure gold ingots.
The “Golden Glitz Countdown Party” kicked off at 11pm for a fun-filled night of live entertainment by DJ Miss Yellow from Hong Kong, and Korean DJs and hip-hop dance group The FLIT. The party reached a climax with the grand countdown to the New Year as the glittering crowd cheered in joy and embraced new hopes and dreams for 2015.

Two-Michelin-star guest chef Takagi Kazuo at Mandarin Oriental

From 22 to 24 January, Mandarin Oriental Macau’s Vida Rica Restaurant presents guest chef Takagi Kazuo from Kyoryuri Takagi, a two-Michelin-star restaurant for five consecutive years in the city of Ashiya, located between Osaka and Kobe. At Vida Rica, he will showcase his special French-inspired Japanese creations.
Diners will be treated to a refined blend of the two countries’ culinary traditions, with Chef Takagi’s signature dishes, such as spider crab with Sturia caviar and shiso flower, and Wagyu beef fillet with foie gras kinome dengaku. Both are featured in a six course degustation dinner menu that reflects the season and is presented in an artistic style at MOP1,288 per person. Four and five course lunch sets highlighting the essence of his creations are also available at MOP398 and MOP498 per person, respectively.
Born to a culinary family, with his mother an instructor at a cooking school and his grandfather a chef, Takagi set his goal to be a Japanese chef from an early age. He received rigorous training on traditional kaiseki-style cooking when he worked at Kyoyamato in Kyoto, and was later promoted to Sous Chef at only 29 years old – making him one of the brightest rising stars on Japan’s culinary scene. In 2005, he opened his own restaurant, Kyoryuri Takagi, which has won two Michelin stars consecutively since 2010. Takagi also opened a bento shop, Nichi Nichi, and a hot pot restaurant, Kozithu, in 2012, with the latter earning one Michelin star consecutively since 2013.