The Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) announced at the press conference, held yesterday at the Tourism Activities Center, that a series of activities will be launched next month as part of the Macau Tourism Awareness Campaign. MGTO's director, João Manuel Costa Antunes, invited the whole community to play an active role in this campaign.

The Macau Tourism Awareness Campaign is a promotional tool to enhance the citizens' knowledge on the Macau tourism industry and to build up their sense of pride in Macau's unique culture. Various training courses will be organized to improve the service quality and to promote a culture of hospitality in Macau, in tune with MGTO's slogan "Be My Guest, Feel At Home".

Director Costa Antunes pointed out in his speech that "the Macau tourism industry is facing new challenges and opportunities in the wake of the decision on the three concessionaires for the gaming industry, as well as the open market policy of the Mainland. It is time that the citizens learn about the importance of tourism".

He also stressed that "the success of the 'Macau Tourism Awareness Campaign' depends on the support and commitment of all members of the public, including private enterprises, educational institutes, professional bodies, neighborhood associations, government departments and all citizens".

This awareness campaign, scheduled to take place from April to September, will launch a series of activities targeting at the whole population, but in particular at students and the employees in the tourism industry. The campaign will be supported by extensive media coverage inviting the whole community to know more about Macau tourism, to play the role as tourism ambassadors and to promote Macau to the world.

During the six-month period, the government is going to allocate MOP$5 million to set up a series of activities for the Macau Tourism Awareness Campaign. The most important ones include a competition called "Discover Your District", in which residents are requested to discover and introduce new selling points of their own districts, for instance food stores with special characteristics, tourism spots and monuments, etc. "Know Your Macau" is another competition that encourages university students to capture their image of Macau on video with a short film. The "Service Standards Training Programme for Taxi and Bus drivers" will provide a chance for these two groups to learn the basics of English conversation as regards tourism, as well as the right service attitude. The "Service Standards Training Programme for Hotel and Restaurant staff" is aimed at enhancing their service quality. Moreover, the "Pedicab Image Building" includes new decorations for pedicabs, which are one of Macau's special characteristics, and a new visual for pedicab drivers.

Apart from the above-mentioned competitions and training programmes, a large-scale street and media promotion will be carried out to invite the whole community to know more about the Macau Tourism Awareness Campaign, to achieve the best results.

In order to catch the attention of the residents even more, especially of the younger generation, MGTO has designed 5 cartoon characters, which are going to transmit the message of being a good host. The 5 characters are called "Polite", "Friendly", "Smiling", "Helpful" and "Knowledge". They were presented at the press conference and will help promoting the Macau Tourism Awareness Campaign.