According to a notice from the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO), the “Macau – Creative City of Gastronomy” meeting was held on Tuesday and the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Alexis Tam used the meeting to propose six objectives for Macau’s development as a UNESCO Creative City.
The objectives of Tam’s plan include creating new synergies between the field of gastronomy and other creative fields covered by the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN), devoting greater promotional efforts and raising the awareness of the title and what it reflects among residents and visitors. His proposal also covered offering vocational training programs as a means to encourage the next generation to choose career paths in the field of gastronomy and assist the Institute for Tourism Studies in establishing a culinary center of “considerable scale”. Other proposed objectives included cooperation with industry partners to support well established catering businesses in the case of future financial downturns, and the promotion of coordination between “different circles” to create a favorable business environment for operators within the gastronomy sector.
Secretary Tam pointed out that even before Macau gained the new designation as a Creative City of Gastronomy, the local government had been actively carrying out tasks to initiate integrated development between gastronomy and creative industries.
Tam gave the example of how the Committee of Cultural Industries established the Task Group for the Promotion of Gastronomy and Cultural Industries to foster related development.
Secretary Tam also said that the two powerful assets in the city’s portfolio – the listing of the Historic Centre of Macau as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the status of Macau as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy – will lead to “a new horizon of opportunities for the related industries and be a great boon for the city’s transformation into a world center of tourism and leisure.”
The meeting, which was presided over by tourism chief Helena de Senna Fernandes, was well-
attended by government representatives, academic institutes and industry organizations, according to MGTO.
Macau was officially designated as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy on October 31, 2017. Following the designation, the MSAR government launched a four-year action plan that is focused on strategic endeavors to hopefully preserve Macau’s worthy claim to the title.
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