Led by Alexis Tam Chon Weng, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macao SAR, a delegation of members of the Tourism Development Committee of Macau paid a visit to several featured tourism projects in Hengqin on 26 September. The two cities are looking to strengthen cooperation in regards to tourism.

Accompanied by Niu Jing, Party Secretary of the Hengqin New Area, and Zou Hua, Director of the Administrative Committee of the Hengqin New Area, the delegation visited Laisun Creative Culture City, Xiangzhou Port Cultural Centre and Sumlodol Hengqing Camping Park.

Following the visit, the two sides sat down with representatives of Hengqin tourism programs and discussed in depth the supporting role that Hengqin can play in helping Macau develop into a world center of tourism and leisure.

Liu Weiguo, Deputy Director of the Social Affairs Bureau of Hengqin New Area, introduced the development of Hengqin’s tourism industry during the meeting, noting that Hengqin is currently focused on the leading fields of tourism such as innovation culture and Traditional Chinese Medicine, aiming to advance the structural reforms of tourism supply-side sectors in order to create a global tourism development pattern featuring both leading and supporting industries. In the future, tourism resources will be shared between Macau and Hengqin and multiple measures will be taken to serve the continuous construction of Macau into a world center of tourism and leisure.

The efforts will be twofold. First, Hengqin will carry forward the development of conventions and exhibitions, leisure tourism, health tourism, sports tourism and cultural tourism. Second, it will jointly design tourism routes and products for international markets and deepen tourism cooperation within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area.

Cheng Wai Tong, Deputy Director of the Macao Government Tourism Office, added that, between January and August this year, Macau received more than 23 million visitors, demonstrating a year-on-year increase of 8.9%. Around one-third of those visitors extended their trip to multiple other destinations, particularly Zhuhai and Hengqin. Cheng described his vision for the future of Macau-Hengqin cooperation as “Eight Connections” including in politics, land transport, water transport, cargo, vehicles, people, finance and “heart”, which altogether will provide greater space for the development of both places.

Both sides agreed that Macau and Hengqin can work together to utilize the great opportunities brought by the planning and construction of the Greater Bay Area and the upcoming operation of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, so as to further the breadth and depth of tourism cooperation.