Macao Institute for Tourism Studies (IFTM) celebrated its 25th anniversary and the Opening Ceremony of the Silver Jubilee Building on its Taipa campus on Thursday.
The Silver Jubilee Building used to be one of the University of Macau (UM) buildings. After the public university moved to its new campus in Hengqin, the building was handed to the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau (SAFP) to be used as a civil servant training centre. However, the project never got off the ground, and the building was left empty for five years until the Macao Institute for Tourism Studies was given the use of it as one of its academic buildings.
It was the University of Macau which named the edifice Silver Jubilee Building to celebrate its own 25th anniversary in 2006.
IFTM operates on two campuses, the ex-UM one in Taipa and its first one in Mong Ha.
IFTM President Fanny Vong Chuk Kwan noted in her speech at the opening ceremony that two of the floors in the building have been renovated, adding that the building will undergo basic maintenance later. She said that the government also gave IFTM an undeveloped site, which was also previously owned by UM, adding that IFTM was planning to build an “international tourism education complex” on the site, making it the institute’s landmark building. She pointed out that the new sites will be used for a simulated teaching environment as well as study rooms, cultural and art exhibitions facilities, a leisure activity room, and a comprehensive administrative building.
According to an IFTM statement provided during yesterday’s ceremony, alumni representative Teresa Lao Kit U and student representative Shown Lei San Lam expressed their good wishes for IFTM’s 25th anniversary celebration. They thanked IFTM for its continued commitment to providing students with quality higher education in tourism, and opportunities and platforms to broaden the students’ horizons and “achieve a wonderful life.”
IFTM was originally set up as a tertiary education institution in 1995. It succeeded the ETIH, a vocational training school established in 1982 and overseen by the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO).
(The Macau Post Daily/Macau News)
PHOTO © Government Information Bureau (GCS)
