Macau Festival to be the event highlight for 2013 in Malaysia

By Anthony Tan | email: anthonykhtan@yahoo.co.uk

The Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) representative office in Kuala Lumpur will organise its annual Macau Festival from 5–7 April 2013. This promotion, to be the main celebration highlight of the year in Malaysia, will give an opportunity for consumers to discover Macau’s attractions, activities and entertainment.

 

(Left - 25th Macau International Music Festival performance at St. Dominic Church) 

It will also be an opportunity to snap up special deals on Macau packages offered by the Amigos Macau, comprising travel agents who specialise in Macau tours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Right: Tunku Iskandar welcoming new Macau Amigo Datin Melissa Ong from Borneo Tours Sdn Bhd) 



 

The Newly Appointed Macau Amigos - more ladies than men

 

 

“Looking forward to next year, we are eyeing 354,363 visitors from Malaysia to set foot in Macau, which is a 4% increase of our 2012 target,” Tunku Iskandar Tunku Abdullah, who heads the MGTO representative office in Malaysia, said in his welcome speech to thank the travel trade partners and the media at its annual MACAU Appreciation Dinner recently.

 

 

Cherrie Lee from MGTO (second from left) with

members of the media at the appreciation dinner 



Cherrie (centre) posing with editor of Corporate Events magazine

Laura Lee(left) and Dian Herly - Corporate Events magazine (right) 

at the appreciation dinner



Its Party Time, let's dance to the funky music

The MGTO had chosen the auspicious date, 12-12-12, to hold the appreciation dinner for over 120 Malaysian travel industry partners and media friends at Grand Hyatt Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.
 

Tunku Iskandar continued, “We do expect some challenges ahead but with your full support, I strongly believe that we will be able to attract more visitors but more than that, I hope you will be able to persuade these visitors to stay more nights in Macau. After all, there is now so much more to do in Macau.”

 

The MGTO will be celebrating two major events in 2013. Firstly, the Macau International Fireworks Display Contest, to be held from 7 September–1 October, will also be celebrating its 25th anniversary with a Trophy Design and Photography Contest.

Secondly, the Macau Grand Prix will be celebrating its 60th Diamond Jubilee celebration from 14–17 November 2013. To increase public awareness for this, Poster Design Competition and "Souvenir Design Competition have been launched.

 

Reviewing 2012, Tunku Iskandar said the MGTO continued to promote Macau with various promotional activities and campaigns by focusing on events and festivals through aggressive above-the-line and below-the-line promotional campaign in the print and electronic media.

They include Golden Screen Cinemas’ video advertisements, television ads, outdoor billboards, online contest campaign, magazines, newspapers to support the Amigos in their efforts to promote Macau.

With all these promotions, it had produced a positive result in Malaysian arrivals into Macau, accounting for 229,706 visitors for January – October this year, which placed Malaysia as the seventh largest market for Macau.

“It is still a good a show. Of course, we would like it to be better,” remarked Tunku Iskandar, who described 2012 as a challenging year for the MGTO especially in Malaysia.

 

He also updated on the hotel developments in Macau such as Sands Cotai Central’s recent launch of three hotel brands: the Conrad, Holiday Inn and the largest Sheraton Hotel.

These integrated resorts, which will have a total of 6,000 rooms, are equipped with business facilities which, state-of-art MICE facilities, a variety of entertainment and great cuisine.

 

Tunku Iskandar said the MGTO had launched the free Audio Guiding Service (AGS) to cater for visitors with different needs and to increase visitor knowledge about Macau’s tourist attractions and its World Heritage sites.

 

The AGS is free of charge. Available from 9am to 5pm daily and in six languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, Portuguese, English, Japanese and Korean, it also provides information on wine in the Wine Museum and the Macau Grand Prix in Grand Prix Museum.

(Top and bottom right picture shows the racing cars used to race at the Macau Grand Prix in Grand Prix are now on display at the Macau Grand Prix in Grand Prix Museum)

 

Also launched in 2012 was the iPhone App, Experience Macau, with the latest and popular travel information. It is equipped with the augmented reality (AR) and trip planner functions to enable users to experience Macau freely and easily anytime.

 

Check out its What's On, Plan Your Trip, Game, Map and AR View features. Selected attractions have been provided with audio introduction and 360 degrees panorama photos.

A dragon dance performance at the ruins of Saint Paul's

 

The App provides information on Macau World Heritage, Museums and Galleries, Shopping, Shows and Entertainment, Hotels and Guest Houses in English as well as traditional and simplified Chinese.

It can be downloaded from the App store in the MGTO website, www.macautourism.gov.mo/en/ezone/apps.php. The good news is the apps in Android version will be launched soon.

From 1 November, Tunku Iskandar said the MGTO had introduced the Wedding Incentive Scheme targeted at couples, wedding planners and companies as well as the enhanced version of the Student Excursion Incentive Scheme.

The amount under the enhanced Student Excursion Incentive Scheme has now been increased from MOP 200 to MOP 300 for each foreign student for their activities in Macau with a minimum of 50 students and two consecutive nights’ stay.

He told the audience the Incentive Travel Stimulation Scheme for organisers and incentive planners would continue.