Heritage to set Macau apart

In 2018, at the beginning of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) project, Guo Xuan-Xuan, School of Management, Xiamen University, proposed a study on the development of the tourism economy in the GBA. The conclusions were not encouraging.

While acknowledging that “the construction of the GBA provides new opportunities and challenges for the development of the tourism economy”, Professor Guo identified numerous problems: the development of the tourism economy in the marginal areas is still lagging behind; the network’s function is poor in some cities of note; the tourism features across the Bay Area are similar to one another and their positioning is ambiguous; and non-core cities have not been able to take advantages of their resources.

The Xiamen U. professor suggests, therefore, that “within the GBA, firstly, it is necessary to promote tourism cooperation to make overall plans for the development of cities. Secondly, it is also important to improve urbanization and interaction. Thirdly, it is vital to enhance economic ties. Finally, it is essential to establish economic scale and reduce internal costs.”

A lot has happened in the four years since 2018.

Macau Business interviewed Cindia Lam, the Academic Coordinator for Bachelor Degree Programs (Chinese Medium of Instruction) at the Macao Institute for Tourism Studies (IFTM), and she has no doubt: “the GBA is only the beginning of a much better tourism era in Macau, and because of the opportunities generated by the GBA the tourism industry of Macau will benefit.”

Professor Lam goes on: “The cities that belong to the GBA project are supposed to collaborate with each other on tourism with the objective of developing the region into a world-class tourism destination. Each of the cities will exercise its own strengths, join forces with the others and fill up any gaps – in other words, they will help each other and become a much stronger force.”

Source: https://www.macaubusiness.com/special-report-heritage-to-set-macau-apart/