Global Tourism Economy Forum | Pansy Ho: Macau must develop own brands to mature tourism

The Global Tourism Economy Forum (GTEF) 2017 kicked off yesterday at Grand Hyatt Macau with secretary general Pansy Ho saying it was necessary for Macau to develop its own brands in order to give tourists a reason to keep coming back to the city.

Now in its sixth year, and continuing to gather ministerial officials, leaders of global corporations, experts and scholars from around the world, the homegrown GTEF is perhaps the most high-profile event in the city for discussing issues concerning the global tourism sector.

The Forum Chairman of GTEF and former MSAR chief executive, Edmund Ho, addressed the opening ceremony yesterday by praising the development of the event over the past few years.

“Hosted in Macau for six consecutive years, GTEF has established itself as a prominent annual international tourism event,” he said. “After years of dedicated effort, GTEF has gained extensive international attention and high-level acknowledgment and support from the Central Government.”

“When we started [GTEF] six years ago, the objective was to create for Macau its own Macau- branded event,” said Pansy Ho, secretary general of GTEF and managing director of Shun Tak Holdings, separately, on the sidelines of the event.

“One might say that Macau is the most successful [development of a] tourism destination in the past decade,” she continued. “However, although we have been successful in bringing all of these [hospitality and gaming] brands to Macau, they do not belong to Macau. They are hotel brands, and they have properties in different parts of the world.”

Ho said the success lay in creating homegrown events and attractions that belong to Macau, thereby giving tourists a reason to visit the city besides wanting to stay in a particular hotel or play baccarat in a particular casino. Stage one was to build the infrastructure, she added, but stage two involves Macau developing unique offerings based on what only it can offer.

“We don’t want people to come [to Macau] because they want to stay in a particular hotel. We want them to come [… for] Macau.”

Although it is ostensibly an “international tourism platform designed to promote the sustainable development of the global tourism industry,” the Forum is predominantly focused on China and the policy initiatives introduced by Beijing. This year it specifically aims to support China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the “16+1” economic framework between China and Central and Eastern European countries.

The 16 Central and Eastern European countries covered in the framework are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. They are partnered with China’s ethnically diverse Guizhou Province in the southwest of the country.

One keynote speaker during yesterday’s conference sessions, He Yafei, the leader of a Guizhou-based environmental protection institution, used his time to overtly criticize Washington and the U.S.-led international system, claiming that the country has “upended itself and become the single most troubling uncertainty in the world today.”

Though his speech contained almost no mention of tourism, He took a particular interest in condemning the notion of American exceptionalism, while advancing a form of Chinese exceptionalism as a basis for the country’s foreign relations.

“The key is to examine closely the cultural and civilization DNA of China that guides its domestic and international policies,” said He, according to the transcript of his speech. “China, different from previous major powers, will by no means become a hegemonic power as it grows stronger. Instead it is a powerful force for world peace and economic growth by maintaining a global and regional governance system as agreed and accepted by the international community as a whole.”

The global tourism sector today makes up more than 10 percent of the world economy, and most experts believe it has the potential to grow much larger.

China accounts for more outbound tourists than any other country worldwide, and the country’s economic growth in the years ahead suggests that the attraction of Chinese tourists will increasingly serve as a key driver in the economies of other countries, particularly those in Europe, North America and Southeast Asia.

Typhoon damages Macau’s tourism image

MGTO head Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, believes that Typhoon Khanun has damaged the region’s tourism image after many tourists were forced to stay at the Border Gate bus and taxi stops during the typhoon. Speaking on the sidelines of the GTEF, the MGTO director has vowed that her department is considering sending messages to tourists prior to their arrivals into Macau, and providing information regarding the city’s situation.