The growth in the travel and tourism industries has outpaced the global economy since 2011. In 2016, travel and tourism accounted for 10.2 percent of global gross domestic product and 292 million jobs, or one-tenth of all jobs in the world.

Tourism is a crucial driver of the development of Macao. In the past 15 years the Macao tourist market has grown tremendously with considerable increases in visitor numbers. The city has welcomed many new mega and integrated resorts and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has added the historical centre of Macao to the World Heritage List.

We expect tourism and hospitality around the world to keep growing appreciably. In Macao, we expect the growth of the tourism and hospitality industries to be propelled by various factors. The opening of new resorts will increase the critical mass of Macao’s offering, leading to an increase in visitor numbers.

We believe growth in travel and tourism around the world and the development of tourism in Macao will increase demand for highly skilled workers. This will benefit our institution, which offers the widest range in Macao of bachelor’s degree programmes and vocational courses in tourism and hospitality.

The Five-Year Development Plan of the Macao SAR (2016-2020) plots the course of the socio-economic development of Macao. The plan, the first of its kind, calls for the city to become a global attraction in accordance with the World Centre for Tourism and Leisure policy, to help diversify the economy. The Central People’s Government first set down this policy in 2011 and reaffirmed it in the 13th Five-Year Plan, for 2016 to 2020.

The Macao SAR Government envisages the city introducing new products and services for tourists, drawing visitors from a greater variety of sources and developing new forms of tourism. The Macao Tourism Industry Development Master Plan, published by the Macao SAR Government in 2017, contains details of the vision.

IFT, being the leading institution of higher education in tourism and hospitality in Macao, believes turning the city into a draw for tourists and leisure-seekers from around the world will help the development of the Institute. We trust this will lead to greater appreciation of the quality of the education we give, and will make the research we do and knowledge accumulated by our academics even more useful to society.

The Framework Agreement on Deepening Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Cooperation in the Development of the Bay Area was signed in July 2017 by representatives of the National Development and Reform Commission and the governments of the province of Guangdong, the Hong Kong SAR and the Macao SAR. Among the aims of the agreement is to develop the Greater Bay Area into an internationally prominent education centre and to support Macao’s development as a base for tourism education and training for the Bay Area.

IFT, being a public provider of tertiary education, will give the Macao SAR Government its full cooperation in pursuing the Bay Area project, and will contribute to the development of the Macao tourism industry as envisaged in the agreement.

The landscape of higher education and vocational training is shifting, the shifts being impelled by many factors, ranging from new technology to demographic changes. Learning online and other aspects of the electronic age are challenging conventional education. The idea of lifelong learning is becoming mainstream, and workers have a continual need to learn new skills to adapt as the market evolves.

The abundance of content available through the Internet to anybody, anywhere, anytime, is putting educators under pressure. It is changing the paradigm of the relationship between students and teachers, so transforming teaching methods.

IFT believes that times of great change, though daunting, are also times of tremendous opportunity. We are working to become an agent of change in education in tourism and hospitality, introducing new ways of teaching, promoting the use of technology in learning, and stimulating students to invest time and effort in learning outside the classroom. We aim to establish relationships with our students that last their lifetimes, rather than only as long as they attend the Institute. The purpose is to make the education we offer even more valuable.

In view of recent amendments to the law in Macao governing higher education, IFT intends to change its charter to allow greater academic autonomy and improve the career prospects of its academic and other staff. This will help attract more teaching and ancillary staff of the highest possible quality. We have also begun to prepare postgraduate programmes for educating talent destined for the top tier of the tourism industry.