ITRC's researcher, Mr. Patrick Lo appeared as a panelist discussing the influences of the Free Individual Travellers (FIT) Policy to the economy and carrying capacity of Macau at the Macau Forum program by TDM.
ITRC announces full year Macao Tourist Satisfaction Index (MTSI) result for 2013
IFT Tourism Research Centre (ITRC) is today announcing 4th quarter as well as full year results for 2013 of the Macao Tourist Satisfaction Index (MTSI).
IFT and OBU shared joint research result at the public seminar "Successful Growth Strategies for SMEs"
The “Successful Growth Strategies for SME” seminar was successfully held on 29 November 2013 at IFT, with 22 participants including government officials and local SMEs.
Public Seminar on “Successful Growth Strategies for SME”
Prof. Levent Altinay and Dr. Maureen Brookes from Oxford Brookes University, U.K. and Dr. Ruth Yeung from Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao SAR are the keynote speakers of the seminar of "Successful Growth Strategies for SME" which will be held on 29 November 2013.
ANTOR (HK) visited ITRC
The group of guests comprises of Hong Kong based National Tourism Organizations and representatives had a lunch meeting with the ITRC director Prof. Leonardo (Don) A. N. Dioko and IFT Assistance Professor Dr. Baudouin Neirynck.
Public seminar delivered by RRG Dr. Moon Fai Chan
IFT’s visiting scholar, Dr. Moon Fai Chan from National University of Singapore shared his research with topic “Examining institutional students’ attitudes towards, perceived benefits, and supports of casino gaming development in Macao and Singapore” at the public seminar on 7 November 2013.
Public Seminar by RRG Scholar Dr. Moon Fai Chan
IFT’s visiting scholar, Dr. Moon Fai Chan from National University of Singapore will share his research at his public seminar in IFT on 7 November 2013. Registration is now open until 5 November 2013.
ITRC announces latest updates of its Visitor Profile Study (VPS)
ITRC is releasing today the most updated results of its Macao Visitor Profile Survey (VPS) covering the first and second quarters of 2013.
ITRC announces the latest findings of the Macao Tourist Satisfaction Index (MTSI)
‘Food, Drink and Hospitality: Space, Materiality, Practice’
Dr. Baudouin C. Neirynck and Dr. Mark A. Gibson of Tourism College will present their joint paper "Quantifying the organoleptic triangle: Inputs, outputs and user experience" at the ‘Food, Drink and Hospitality: Space, Materiality, Practice’ in London.
Making Waves - International Conference on Events (ICE 2013) was successfully held
IFT was the co-organiser of Making Waves - International Conference on Events (ICE 2013) which was successfully held in Bournemouth University, U.K. during 3 to 5 July 2013.
International Conference on Events (ICE2013), 3-5 July 2013 at Bournemouth University, UK
The International Conference on Events, with IFT as co-organiser, will be held during 3 to 5 July in Bournemouth University, U.K..
Dr. Edmond Wu of Sun Yat-sen University begins his research residency at IFT
Dr. Edmond Wu of Sun Yat-sen University begins his research residency and delivers first seminar to IFT faculty members on “Models for Tourist Arrival Forecasting in Macao”.
Q4 2012 report of the Macao Visitor Profile Survey (VPS) released
IFT Tourism Research Centre (ITRC) is releasing today the latest results of the Macao Visitor Profile Survey (VPS) covering the fourth quarter of 2012. ITRC has been collecting quarterly data on visitor profile and characteristics since 2008 and analyzing visitor trends. Highlights and analysis of trends from the latest quarter are as follows:
Proportion of visitors coming primarily for gambling continues to drop
Figure 1 - Proportion % of visitors saying their primary visiting purpose is gambling
The proportion of visitors indicating gambling as the primary purpose for their visit to Macao declined from 7.2% in Q3 2012 to a low of 6.2% in the last quarter of 2012, the lowest percentage thus far recorded. See Figure 1. Visitors arriving primarily for pleasure or vacation purposes comprised 76.5% of those interviewed in Q4 2012. Shopping, cuisine and attractions remain strong pulls for visiting Macao. ITRC tracks this data as one of many indicators to determine whether Macao’s tourism is diversifying – one of the key strategies of the territory’s long-term tourism development.
Other observations: Shopping and dining are the most popular non-gaming activities, especially of those coming from Mainland China and Hong Kong. However, data suggests that visiting World Heritage attractions (9.5%), attending festivals, non-business events, shows or concerts (4.2%) and visiting for business purposes (3.8%) do not show a clear trend and fluctuate over time.
Shopping activities = Shorter length of stay?
Figure 2 - Profile of visitors with varying length of stay (%), Q4 2012
Analysis of VPS data from Q4 2012 shows that the highest proportion of same day (or short-staying) visitors is associated with cross-border shopping activities. See Figure 2. This segment (same day length and shopping) comprises 19.1% of visitors.. A slight increase in proportion of visitors coming for attractions and stay overnight was observed (16.0%); while only 3% of surveyed respondents visiting for pleasure stayed overnight.
As in previous quarters, there is no evidence of positive association between first time visitors and longer length of stay, nor between tour packages and longer length of stay. However, the data with respect to visitors from Taiwan China remains positive. This segment has a higher likelihood than others to stay overnight in Macao (6.4%). The same pattern is evident amongst tourists from other Asian countries, although numbers from these areas remain low relative to the main source markets of Mainland China and Hong Kong.
The overall trend throughout the latest quarter shows that Macao continues to grow as a short-stop shopping destination for the Greater China areas. To develop Macao into an international tourism destination, further diversification in attractions and pleasure offerings is necessary to entice visitors from the long haul markets, therefore lengthen the overall duration of stay.
About the VPS
Every quarter since 2008 ITRC has been collecting relevant information with which it conducts analysis leading to identifying segments and niche profiles of visitors. We use these analyses to inform policy-making and the long term effectiveness of destination planning and marketing, for both public and private sector stakeholders.
Methodology
Data for the Macao Visitor Profile Survey comes from field surveys of visitors. Survey was conducted over nine days for each quarter and targeted to collect at least 114 samples that completed at least half of their planned visit period or activity at the time of interview on each survey date. Interview locations included major sites and terminals including the Border Gate, Ruins of St. Paul’s, Rua do Cunha at Taipa, Senado Square, Hong Kong-Macao Ferry Terminal and Macao International Airport. Each quarter sees around a final sample comprised of 1,026 visitors. The questionnaires used for collecting data for the VPS seeks information from visitors primarily on (1) their purpose and reasons for visiting Macao, (2) their trip and travel characteristics, (3) travel and transportation arrangements, (4) accommodation arrangements, (5) major information source, (6) spending behavior, (7) visitor attractions visited, (8) gaming behavior, and (9) evaluation of their overall travel experience.
For more information
Please contact Ms. Virginia Hong or Ms. Wendy Tang of ITRC at itrc@ift.edu.mo.
Visitor satisfaction with Macao slightly better than 2011 but no signs yet of sustained improvement
IFT Tourism Research Centre (ITRC) is releasing Q4 2012 quarterly and 2012 annual results of the Macao Tourist Satisfaction Index (MTSI).
New study by ITRC reveals which profile of Macao workers have the highest and lowest job satisfaction
Details of the newly launched Macao Human Resource Monitoring Survey (MHRM) has just been released in an inaugural report
ITRC launches long-term periodic monitoring and study of labor and human resource issues – MHRM
ITRC announces today the release of its inaugural report on the Macao Human Resource Monitoring Survey (or MHRM), the Centre's latest major research project. Designed to periodically capture the attitudes, opinions and sentiments of Macao’s workforce, the MHRM Survey will be conducted and its findings reported twice a year.
Among the information to be gathered regularly are employees' levels of job satisfaction, job stress, organizational commitment, intention-to-quit and organizational loyalty measures as well as satisfaction with a host of occupational and work conditions such as compensation, benefits, opportunities for advancement and inter-relationships at work, either with colleagues or with superiors and subordinates.
Although the MHRM primarily focuses on analyzing labor and human resource issues pertaining to the tourism, hospitality and gaming industries, findings will be compared across all categories of workers in other sectors of Macao's economy. Director of ITRC, Dr. Leonardo (Don) Dioko, notes:
"Despite the copious amount of information generated about Macao's rapid economic growth, there is little if any information resource of sufficient scale, scope and sustained collection over time, which policy makers, industry leaders and the general public can tap or rely on in regard to the important task of understanding issues surrounding labor force relations, incentives, equity and benefits as well as identifying the needs, conditions and aspirations of Macao's human resources. The MHRM project will aim to fill this gap in knowledge."
Among the major findings of the pilot survey:
1) Overall, majority of the employed labor force in Macao are moderately satisfied with their jobs. Those working in tourism related industries, however, expressed a slightly lower level of job satisfaction compared to non-tourism workers.
2) Workers from the tourism industry had lower satisfaction with practically every specific domain of their jobs (i.e., job security, supervision, treatment, recognition and pay) compared to non-tourism workers.
3) Tourism industry workers also tend to report lower intent to stay at and lower levels of commitment to their organizations, compared to non-tourism industry workers.
Considering that most of the working population of Macao are occupationally involved in tourism or tourism-related organizations and that the nominal income of workers has increased in recent years, the above findings—which echo a generally coping sentiment—should be cause for long-term concern.
More details of the MHRM can be found here. Regular subscribers of ITRC's studies will receive an email shortly with a link to download the inaugural report while non-subscribers should register in the MHRM project page to receive a copy.
IFT-BU E-conference 2013
The Fourth Video Conference of Bournemouth University, U.K. & IFT, with theme "Heritage and Tourism: An Unholy Alliance? " will be held on 21 March 2013.
International Conference on Tourism, Transport and Logistics 2013
Deadline for Abstract Submission for the ICE 2013 - 31st January 2013
Deadline for abstract submission is 31 January 2013
IFT as one of the co-organizers of the International Conference on Events which will be held during 3 to 5 July 2013 in Bournemouth University in the UK, would like to remind you the deadline for abstract submission for the conference is 31 January 2013. See you there!
For more information and updates, please visit the following sites.
Website http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/tourism/news-and-events/events/conferences/ice2013.html