IFT is again cooperating with the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) to provide training workshops to civil servants of tourism-related bodies from Portuguese-speaking countries. The overall training initiative is held in partnership with the Permanent Secretariat of the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries, a body also known as Forum Macao.
This is the fourth year that IFT is collaborating with MGTO’s annual training programme for officials from tourism offices of Portuguese-speaking countries. In 2019, a total of 3 intakes of civil servants of tourism-related bodies is receiving training in Macao. Each training session – with about 10 to 12 participants – lasts for 2 weeks and includes 2 days of workshops at IFT. The 2019 programme started in March and runs until July.
The IFT workshops for the second batch of participants in the scheme took place in May. One of the workshops, held on 21 May, was about human resources management development and included a presentation and tour of the Wynn Palace integrated resort, in Macao’s Cotai district. The other one took place on 28 May, and focused on event management. It also featured a presentation and visit of the Studio City and City of Dreams integrated resorts, also on Cotai.
One of the workshop participants was Mr. Adildo Soares, a city councillor for Tarrafal de São Nicolau municipality in Cabo Verde. His role is to oversee the culture and tourism portfolios of that local authority. He says the courses provided by IFT were “very productive” for attendees as a learning exercise.
He highlights the fact that the workshop on human resource management included the tour to Wynn Palace. During the field trip, participants had exchanges with representatives from the human resources department of Wynn Macau Ltd, the operator of Wynn Palace.
“During the second workshop, we discussed the organisation of large-scale events,” Mr. Soares notes. “As I am involved in putting together festivals and fairs for Tarrafal municipality, it was positive to discuss different approaches to event management.”
Mr. Dikila Kiana, from the Angolan side of the Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA), agrees that the IFT workshops provided participants with valuable insights into tourism management. “The workshops were very interesting since we got access to a lot of specialised tourism-related knowledge,” he says.
The Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area is a transnational project, involving a number of contiguous natural parks and an aggregate of 5 African countries, and covering an area almost 3 times the size of Guangdong province in mainland China. Although the tourism challenges it faces are very different from those of Macao, Mr. Kaina says the city “is a good example” to other places in terms of overall tourism management.
The workshops were offered by IFT’s Global Centre for Tourism Education and Training. The Centre was established in 2016 to strengthen the Institute’s position as an international hub for education and training.
IFT’s positioning as an international centre for tourism education includes strengthening cooperation with Portuguese-speaking countries. This strategy aligns with the Macao SAR Government’s efforts to promote the city as a cooperation platform between the People’s Republic of China and the Portuguese-speaking countries.
