The development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area will require “large-scale” cooperation among the three regions, and the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) has no concrete tourism plan for the Great Bay Area yet, said MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes.
Senna Fernandes made the remarks on the sidelines of a sharing session at Macau Fisherman’s Wharf Convention & Exhibition Centre co-hosted by the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) and the Secretariat for Social Affairs and Culture on the development of tourism and the recent deployment of tourist police in Macau.
However, Senna Fernandes was quick to add that the development of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) will be included in her office’s future working plan.
Premier Li Keqiang’s government work report to the opening session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) in Beijing on March 5 mentioned the central government’s plan to develop a “city cluster in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area”.
The plan appeared in a State Council policy paper in March 2016, following a regional study back in 2011, but this was the first time that it was included in Li’s annual work report.
Commentators have pointed out that the GBA will comprise three starkly different jurisdictions.
Regarding future cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau, Senna Fernandes said the three regions would jointly promote multi-destination travel. She also said that representatives of the three regions would visit Jakarta next month to promote GBA tourism.
Senna Fernandes also said her office would further study how to make good use of the Guangdong-Macau free-travel yachting scheme, officially slated to get off the ground in June, promising that her office will do its best to promote the scheme.
(Macau News / The Macau Post Daily)
