The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) is joining hands with the Portuguese Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies (APAVT) to promote Macao at the Lisbon Travel Market (BTL), running since February 28 until March 3, leveraging on the designation of “Macao – APAVT Preferred International Destination 2024” to increase travel flows from Portugal and Europe, as part of the work to diversify international visitor source markets.

“Macao Day” launches array of promotional activities at Portugal’s largest travel fair

MGTO Director, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, travelled to Portugal for BTL 2024, where she attended yesterday (29 February) a “Macao Day” held at the APAVT pavilion. The program of the “Macao Day” included a string of activities: the inauguration of a booth showcasing Macao’s diverse “tourism +” offerings set up inside the APAVT pavilion, the launch of an e-learning program about Macao for Portuguese travel agents, lion dances and Chinese martial arts displays, an “Happy Hour with Macanese Gastronomy” and more, to promote the resources and profile of the destination at the biggest Portugal international tourism fair.

Create a platform to drive visitor flows from Portugal, Spain and Europe

At the opening of the “Macao Day”, APAVT handed a symbolic plaque to MGTO of “Macao - Preferred International Destination 2024”, in a ceremony attended by around 50 Portuguese travel trade and media.

Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes remarked at the occasion that the designation provides “a privileged platform to promote Macao among Portuguese travel agents, fundamental to drive visitor flows from Portugal and to lay the ground for a successful APAVT National Congress 2025 scheduled to take place in Macao,” highlighting that as MGTO moves efforts to expand international visitor source markets, “APAVT is a key partner to help boost tourism relations with Portugal and Europe”.

The president of APAVT, Pedro Costa Ferreira, said: “We are very happy for the fantastic work we have been conducting together since the pandemic, to rebuild Macao as a reference tourist destination, not only in Portugal, but also in Spain and even Europe. The “Preferred International Destination 2004”, with its array of events represents another step forward in this global strategy we embraced with motivation and responsibility, which will certainly bring visibility to Macao in the coming years.”

Train travel agents as “Macao experts” to launch travel packages

The e-learning program, “Specialization in Macao Tourism”, was launched by APAVT in a presentation session for Portuguese travel agents during the “Macao Day”. Its content includes general knowledge about the destination, its heritage and culture, gastronomy, entertainment, how to travel to Macao/China, and other information aiming to facilitate sales increase of Macao travel packages. For the next three months, the program to train “Macao experts” will be made available by APAVT to its members.

Showcase of Macao tourism attractions and destination profile

At the 34^th edition of BTL, which attracted this year 1,400 exhibitors from 85 countries and regions, the MGTO booth set up inside the APAVT pavilion at BTL showcases Macao’s two main calling cards of the UNESCO world heritage listed Historic Centre of Macao and as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, alongside the destination’s signature events and traditional festivities. There is also distribution of Macao tourism information during the five-days of the travel fair.

More collaboration with APAVT to tap into European visitor source markets

Throughout the year, APAVT will continue to highlight Macao as its “Preferred International Destination” on its communications, promotional materials and events, helping to raise the image of the destination, as well as prepare the ground for the APAVT Annual Congress 2025, which is set to bring hundreds of Portuguese travel trade to Macao.

Meanwhile, MGTO will continue to partner with APAVT to promote Macao among Spanish and European travel trade as well. Following the joint promotion conducted in January at FITUR 2024, in Madrid, Spain, coming up next is the organization of a group of European travel agents from APAVT, the Spanish Confederation of Travel Agents (CEAV), and the European Travel Agents’ and Tour Operators’ Associations (ECTAA) for a familiarization visit during the 12th Macao International Travel (Industry) Expo in April, in another collaboration to continue expanding Macao’s international visitor source markets.