IFTM to up slots to 650 in upcoming academic year

The Macao Institute for Tourism Studies (IFTM) has increased its 2023/2024 intake by around 13%, implying around 650 seats will be available across different levels.

Speaking to the press on the sidelines of IFTM’s Open Day yesterday, Fanny Vong, IFTM president, said that although there are aims to reach out to the mainland and international market, as a public higher institution, she deems that the priority is to “meet local demand.”

“We remain at the service of the local community, first of all, we satisfy local needs and then with the available resources left, we’ll reach out to other markets, mainly the mainland market [which] is a [vast] one,” said Vong.

“But we also do a lot of promotion in [the] international market. We hope to expand the mainland and international market in general after satisfying local needs,” the scholar added.

Meanwhile, to keep up with the government’s Tourism+ strategies, Vong said that IFTM’s future program offerings will have an emphasis on combining traditional tourism knowledge with technology. In the last academic year, IFTM launched a new Masters program in smart technologies for hospitals and tourism. This coming 2023/2024 academic year, the institute aims to launch a Masters program in digital marketing and analytics.

“In the future you will see us moving more towards the direction of Tourism+, especially Tourism+ technology.”

With approximately 400 students graduating this summer, the president is confident in the students’ skills, and noted that they are ready to fill the demand in the hotel sector.

Before the pandemic, the institute achieved an employment rate of over 90%, with students able to find jobs within six months, Vong said. Staff Reporter