2012-09-18 — /travelprnews.com/ — The Inaugural Meeting of the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) and the Beijing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit are held under the theme “Better City Life through Tourism” in China National Convention Centre in Beijing during September 14 – 16, 2012. The Macau Special Administrative Region is elected a city member of the Council of World Tourism Cities Federation. Director of Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO), João Manuel Costa Antunes attends the event on behalf of the Macau Special Administrative Region.
The Inaugural Meeting of World Tourism Cities Federation will be held on September 15. The General Assembly and the Council meeting were first held today to elect the first tenure of city Council members and non-city Council members. Acting Mayor of Beijing is appointed the Chairperson of the Council while the Macau Special Administrative Region, represented by Macau Government Tourist Office, is elected a city member of the Council. During the meeting, Director João Manuel Costa Antunes signed the World Tourism Cities Federation “Beijing Declaration” on behalf of the Macau Special Administrative Region.
The 1st World Tourism Cities Expo made its grand inauguration at Wangfujing Street in the afternoon concurrently. Acting Mayor of Beijing, Wang Anshun and Vice Chairman of China National Tourism Administration, Du Yili ,etc. attended the opening ceremony. Different city members set up booths to showcase their tourism resources in the Expo. MGTO designed the booth around the theme “Touching Moments, Experience Macau” and promoted Macau tourism products and attractions towards Beijing citizens and visitors.
Director João Manuel Costa Antunes will address the topic “Tourism Industry Development in Boosting City Development” at the Panel Session of the World Tourism Cities Beijing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit on September 15 and introduce the Macau tourism industry situation to the participants. He will also use the case of Macau to illustrate the event’s theme “Better City Life through Tourism” in three perspectives, namely Tourism Economy in Macau, Interplay between Tourism and Economic Development as well as Tourism in Boosting City Development.
Many programs are also held during the Summit including World Tourism Cities Gourmet Festival, World Tourism Cities Film Festival, Award Ceremony of Beijing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit of WTCF, among others.
Beijing takes the lead and joins hands with various renowned foreign and domestic tourist cities including Barcelona, Berlin, Dubai, Los Angeles, Ottawa, Tianjin and Chongqing to co-establish the World Tourism Cities Federation. According to the Federation, it is a non-profit and non-governmental international organization jointly organized by tourist cities and tourism-related entities in different countries and regions across the world. It is also the world’s first international tourism organization which regards cities as major units. World Tourism Cities Federation is founded not only to promote tourism resources among cities but also to foster the implementation of tourism policies at national level through tourism exchange among member cities.
World Tourism Cities Federation is ranked the world’s 4th largest tourism organization after World Tourism Organization, World Travel & Tourism Council and Pacific Asia Travel Association. Its headquarters will be based permanently in Beijing. Currently the Federation has its first batch of 58 city and non-city members in total as well as 1 observer city.
e-mail: media@macautourism.gov.mo
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Director João Manuel Costa Antunes signs the World Tourism Cities Federation “Beijing Declaration” on behalf of Macau SAR
World Tourism Cities Federation ‘Beijing Declaration’
Director João Manuel Costa Antunes speaks at the Council meeting
Macau’s Booth at the World Tourism Cities Expo