Rector's Corner

New Taipa campus raises commitment of IFT to quality tourism education

中文摘要 / Summary in Chinese

IFT held on 12 October last year a plaque unveiling ceremony to inaugurate officially our new Taipa campus, located on the former campus of the University of Macau. Macao’s Chief Executive, Dr. Chui Sai On; accompanied by the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macao SAR, Dr. Alexis Tam Chon Weng; and the Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Dr. Taleb Rifai, attended the event.

The plaque unveiling ceremony was witnessed by many Institute staff and students, as well as guests and representatives of institutional partners of IFT from Macao and overseas. The event marked an important milestone for the Institute: the new campus – which is to be used to host classes starting from academic year 2016/17 – will allow us to offer improved conditions to students. It will enable IFT better to uphold our mission of providing quality education and training in the fields of tourism and hospitality.

IFT’s new Taipa campus includes several buildings that were previously the responsibility of the University of Macau. These include: the former University of Macau Library building; a staff quarters; 2 laboratories; and a student dormitory complex.

The new premises are double the size of those that IFT currently occupies on the Mong-Há campus, which will be retained by the Institute. The previous IFT campus in Taipa, at César Fortune Building, was closed at the end of June this year.

At the new Taipa campus, IFT will offer classrooms, a library, accommodation for students, and a new training hotel. The new premises will enable the Institute to widen our programme and our course offerings, in spacious and state-of-the-art educational facilities. We look forward to having the space to be able to welcome greater numbers of local and international students and scholars to our campuses.

We also are making use of our new facilities in order to implement further, collaborative projects with regional and international governmental agencies and tourism organisations, including UNWTO. A first group of international trainees from Cambodia stayed at the Taipa campus in June this year while attending a 7-day training programme at IFT, organised in collaboration with UNWTO. The course involved officials from Cambodia’s APSARA National Authority – in charge of managing the Angkor archaeological site – and a group of heritage tour guides. It was the first cooperation project following a memorandum of understanding on sustainable tourism development signed in May this year between Macao’s Secretariat for Social Affairs and Culture and the Ministry of Tourism of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Through the ongoing improvement and expansion of our facilities and our international links, IFT aims further to contribute to tourism education and training in Macao. This will help nurture talented industry professionals and leaders, capable of realising the vision of making Macao a World Centre of Tourism and Leisure.