GTEF tourism conference returns to Macao with focus on sustainability

Following last year’s edition in Harbin, the Macao-founded Global Tourism Economy Forum (GTEF) returned to the SAR last week, drawing nearly 1,300 delegates across 20 countries and regions to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the leisure industry.

Under the theme of “Crisis, Resilience, Evolution – Building a Tourism Economy for a Shared Future,” the 12th annual congress takes place just months before the United Nations inaugurates 2027 as the International Year of Sustainable and Resilient Tourism, an initiative which undertakes a coordinated approach to lay out a socially responsible course for the global tourism economy.

In her opening remarks, UN Tourism secretary-general Shaikha Al Nuwais mentioned that 690 million people have travelled internationally this year, 3 million more than over the same period in 2025, highlighting the desire for people across the globe to connect with one another despite geopolitical and macroeconomic headwinds. 

Tourism’s success should be measured not just by visitor numbers, but by what it brings to destinations and their communities, she said. The industry’s focus has shifted from attracting more travellers to generating greater value – and, nowadays, to the principles that guide its growth.

[See more: The Greater Bay Area’s unified tourism brand still ‘a work in progress’, experts tell Skål Congress in Macao]

Among the critical factors is China emerging as a driver for global tourism, said World Travel & Tourism Council president and chief executive officer Gloria Guevara, pointing to visa-exemption policies that make it easier to enter the world’s second-largest economy. In the first half of the year, nearly 21 million foreign visitors entered China, with visa-free arrivals accounting for about 78 percent, according to China’s National Immigration Administration.

Tourism: Macao perspectives

Macao is hoping to leverage China’s eased restrictions. Despite a record 40 million visitors in 2025, Macao’s overseas arrivals remain below their pre-pandemic levels.

Due to capacity limitations at Macau International Airport, tourism experts have long said that any meaningful additional flow of foreign arrivals would need to use airports on the mainland or Hong Kong before arriving in the city, where officials are targeting 3 million overseas tourists this year after welcoming 2.7 million in 2025.

Since 2012, more than 15,000 delegates have attended the GTEF. Prior to Harbin, the conference was held in Macao in 2023, following an annual run in the city from 2012 to 2020.