Recall that the very reason for Macao’s gaming deregulation was to develop the economy, promote its diversification and enhance residents’ quality of life.  Nine years down that road, gaming has brought lucrative returns that exceed all expectations.  An ongoing strategic mission for both the government and the gaming operators is to make use of this new found economic strength to realise economic diversification by developing non-gaming sectors.
Macao’s people are proud of our World Heritage, festivals and events, Macanese cuisine, world-class sports tournaments and arts performances.  With this good foundation, Macao is now exploring the potential of the cultural and creative industry, which complements tourism very well.  Cultural and art works and events conjure deeper and stronger senses of the place and people, imprint longer-lasting memories that touch the soul, and raise destination marketing to a higher level of emotional appeal.

Konstantin Bessmertny is himself a work in creative expression.  Clever, mischievous, well-read and sharply intuitive, he creates art for himself, yet has definitive impact on all who witness his unique perspectives.  His talents are quickly revealed in the exactness of a sculpted life-sized horse or the scope and depth of field (and meaning) in each of his paintings.  Born in Blagoveschchensck, having relocated to Macao, he has not been able to leave for nearly 20 years.  Here he tells why.

T:  Would you consider yourself a serious stoic, a satirical comic, or neither?  How would you describe yourself?

I never even dreamed about this; giving a presentation on an international stage instead of in an IFT classroom, joining an expert forum to discuss the future of the tourism industry and having my picture in the newspapers. But, this is what seems to have happened!

It is my honour to have won the Tomorrow’s Tourism Competition. As part of the celebration of the PATA 60th year anniversary, the competition was launched last September. It aimed at challenging undergraduate students from PATA member schools to come up with new ways of measuring tourism, taking into account its wider impact on the environment and community at large. This competition has encouraged me to think beyond the typical success indicators such as arrival figures and tourism receipts.

For the preliminary contest, we were required to submit a five-minute video to present our ideas. Thanks to my project experience gained at IFT, my skill at making presentation videos had already been sharpened. I not only paid attention to my content, but I also spent a lot of time on organising my video presentation, which I am aware is actually very important. I found some of the submissions gave excellent ideas, but rather poor video presentation qualities and this could have been a factor in their missing the final. My effort and attention to detail in the video was rewarded when my submission was selected as one of the finalists, which gave me the opportunity to attend the 60th Anniversary and Conference in Beijing and to present my ideas, in person, to the industry.

I give thanks to Peter Semone, who was the moderator of our session in Beijing, as he provided us with many valuable tips on delivering our presentation. I won the competition unexpectedly; as the other two groups were really well prepared and organised. In reflection, I believe the key points that allowed me to win the competition were a sense of humour, confidence and conviction in what I was saying and my general understanding of effective presentation skills. I used the simplest methods to present my ideas instead of more complex forms that other groups attempted. I have to say I gained presentation insight from grappling with our IFT projects day and night over the past three years. After winning the award, I also received the honour of representing the young generation in a debate regarding the past, present and progressive future of the tourism industry.

The competition was an invaluable opportunity for me to present my ideas at an international conference and to listen to the opinions and comments from industry experts. It was a great chance to exchange my thoughts with those experts. As I will be graduating very soon, I would like to take this chance to express my deepest appreciation to IFT and my teachers who have helped shape my development as a competent and knowledgeable tourism professional.

IFT students joined the field trip to Vigan to increase their international exposure

To provide diversified training opportunities for managers and professionals and to enhance the management quality of the local service industry, IFT and the Cornell-Nanyang Institute of Hospitality Management once again co-organised an Executive Development Programme on Revenue Management on 23 & 24 May.  The objective of this course has been to assist participants in their understanding of how to apply the principles of revenue management, to maximise profitability, and to maintain guest satisfaction.  The programme attracted 27 participants from senior managers of local hotels and resorts to those working within similar organisations in neighbouring regions.

IFT has had the honour of inviting and working with Dr. Sheryl E. Kimes, Professor of Operations Management at the School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University, USA.

Tourism College

旅遊學院與新加坡「康奈爾–南洋款待管理學院」於5月23至24日再度舉辦「收益管理」高級管理課程。課程吸引27位來自本澳及鄰近地區酒店業界的高級行政人員及學者參加。藉著舉辦各式各樣的研討會和工作坊，學院持續與業界分享最新的資訊和研究成果，共同探討現時旅遊業的前景，以促進旅遊業的發展。

While the Institute is currently working on the selection of local applicants, it has already commenced recruitment activities in the mainland.  The National Education Department has authorised IFT to pursue recruitment of mainland high school graduates for this fall’s academic year.  With the arrangement of the Tertiary Education Services Office, IFT, together with other local higher education institutions, embarked on a recruitment and promotional trip to Beijing, Chongqing, Hebei, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Shanxi, Sichuan and Xinjiang, during which the Institute also visited Provincial or Municipal Admission Offices to discuss how to improve the application procedures.

IFT has been offering the Community and Education Development Programme (CEDP) since September 2009.  It aims to provide relevant knowledge and essential training for those interested in the tourism, hotel and hospitality industry.  It also expands the human resource pool for the industry and offers improvement to the general quality of Macao citizens, which is in line with the Macao Government’s Lifelong Learning Policy.  On a similar note, in order to cope with the government policy of promoting Culture and Creativity Industry in Macao, CEDP began offering related courses to the public in 2010.

The Institute has received excellent feedback from students who have attended the Culture and Creativity courses, and a number of students’ art work have been collected and put on display.  These include pieces from the Photography, Mosaic Art, Creative Acrylic Painting, Sketching, 3D Animation, 3D Paper Modeling, Macao Souvenir Design, and Silver Clay Art.  The art works have been on display at different times in the IFT campuses. 

The CEDP also coordinates with IFT staff who are fond of photography.  Resulting master pieces have been displayed in the Team Building to raise the culture and the atmosphere of creativity around the Main Campus. 

In order to let our staff, students and public get to know more about Acrylic Painting, we held an exhibition till 30 June in our Educational Restaurant showcasing students’ art works from the Creative Acrylic Painting (Elementary) course. There was more than 20 pieces of art work being shown this time, and we will invite those student artists, IFT staff and some journalists to share this fruitful result from their learning.  The Creative Acrylic Painting (Elementary) course first started in August last year, and we received very good comments on it. As of March this year this course has been held three times. It is a 30-hour course embedded with both theory and practical lessons, which includes the introduction of painting materials, features of the acrylic paint, still life drawing, landscape drawing, abstract drawing and more…

IFT is planning to hold an integrated exhibition at The Juvenile Art Exhibition and Performances Hall 1st floor show room from 5-21 July for the display of CEDP Culture and Creativity students’ (under 29 years old) art works. The exhibition will include art works from courses like Photography, Mosaic Art, Creative Acrylic Painting, 3D Paper Modeling, Macao Souvenir Design, Silver Clay Art and others. Through this public exhibition, we hope to let the public know more about our Culture and Creativity courses and also to share students’ artistic achievements.

Community Education and Development Programme

學院由6月17至30日於教學餐廳舉辦創意壓克力繪畫(初階)課程的學生作品展，展出20多幅學生作品，並於展覽首日邀請參展學生、導師及記者朋友分享他們的創作成果。另於7月5至21日期間於塔石青少年展藝舘一樓演藝廳舉辦綜合性作品展覽，展示社區教育發展計劃文化創意課程的學生作品，包括攝影、馬賽克藝術、創意壓克力繪畫、立體紙品模型製作、澳門紀念品設計、純銀設計等。

Jeffery Lao Chak Cheong - Bronze Award in the Category of Young Pastry Chefs Chocolate Fragrant Tea Cake in the Hong Kong International Culinary Classic 2011 at HOFEX