Greater Bay Area

IFT hosts Greater Bay Area tourism talent exchange programme

中文摘要 / Summary in Chinese

IFT hosted in September a Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao tourism talent exchange and cooperation programme. The scheme aimed to enhance the quality of human capital in the sector.

The programme was also targeted at fostering deeper integration between Macao and the other cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area – or Greater Bay Area for short – in relation to the tourism sector. This was in order to promote cross-sector development and to create joint tourism products and services.

The initiative took place from 19 to 23 September at IFT. It included a series of seminars on tourism-related topics, delivered respectively by representatives from IFT, the Macao Government Tourism Office, the University of Macau and the international travel website TripAdvisor.

The programme was attended by 26 delegates coming respectively from the Tourism Administration of Guangdong Province and from tourism bureaus and related organisations from 9 cities in the province. It included a field trip to the Venetian Macao integrated resort, in order to allow participants to have a better understanding of Macao’s hospitality industry.

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao talent exchange programme was part of a joint effort by IFT, the Macao Government Tourism Office, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, the Tertiary Education Services Office, and the city’s other higher education institutions. Under the leadership of Macao’s Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Dr. Alexis Tam Chon Weng, the aim is to push forward, in the Greater Bay Area, Macao’s role as a regional base for tourism education and training.

The Greater Bay Area project encompasses the 2 Special Administrative Regions of the People’s Republic of China, namely Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR; and 9 cities from Guangdong Province, namely Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing. It aims to advance and integrate development in the Greater Bay Area in several sectors, from economy and trade, to environment protection and education.

The National Development and Reform Commission, the Guangdong Provincial Government, the Hong Kong SAR Government and the Macao SAR Government signed on 1 July 2017 the Framework Agreement on Deepening Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Cooperation in the Development of the Bay Area. The agreement calls – among other things – for the development of the Greater Bay Area as a prominent centre for international-standard education, and calls for support regarding cooperation in developing Macao as a base for tourism education and training.

IFT fully supports the policies of the Macao SAR Government to facilitate and enhance the development of the Greater Bay Area. In May, the Institute jointly organised – with the School of Tourism Management at Guangdong Province’s Sun Yat-sen University, and the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at Hong Kong Polytechnic University – “The Greater Bay Area Collaborative Tourism Research Forum”. The forum focused on collaborative tourism research needed to address the challenges and opportunities facing the long-term tourism development of the Greater Bay Area.

“Education is the foundation of the city’s tourism development and economic prosperity,” says IFT President Dr. Fanny Vong. “IFT has been delivering academic activities and conducting research to promote Macao’s position in the Greater Bay Area development.”

Dr. Xu Hui Fang, Deputy Director of the Tourism Administration of Guangdong Province, expressed gratitude to IFT for hosting the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao tourism talent exchange and cooperation programme. “IFT has made a solid contribution in cultivating talent for Macao’s hospitality industry,” he stated during the scheme’s opening ceremony. “The programme helps promote deeper regional cooperation and integration between cities in the Greater Bay Area, further enhancing Macao’s role as a service platform in the development of the Greater Bay Area.”