The twelfth Global Tourism Economy Forum (GTEF) returns to Macao where it all began from 15th to 17th October.
GTEF is slated to bring together political and business leaders, academic elites, and representatives from international organisations across five continents.
Discussions and presentations will revolve around the theme Crisis · Resilience · Evolution - Building a Tourism Economy for a Shared Future to collectively address defining questions of our era and chart a blueprint for shared progress.
GTEF will likewise host business matching, cultural tourism promotions, and themed dinners.
Adopting an integrated MICE + Delegation Visit model, the event extends its programming to Macao world heritage culinary tours and wellness tourism site visits in the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, opening concrete new channels for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area supply chain synergy and investment execution.
Five pillars of alignment
Standing at a new historical starting point, GTEF 2026 will closely align with five core pillars, namely Resilient Governance, Technology and Innovation, The New Traveller, Culture and Identity, and Sustainable Growth, deeply integrating with Macao's development strategies.
The Forum will explore frontier topics such as global cultural tourism capital deployment, China-Europe and Asia-Pacific connectivity, mountain-dwelling tourism, and investment facilitation.
It will also transcend traditional industry boundaries to explore emerging Tourism+ business models such as AI empowerment, educational tourism, sports IP, cultural heritage revitalisation, and experiential retail, offering forward looking guidance for global industry transformation.
Locations in the spotlight
This edition likewise features Spain as the partner-country to share its mature experiences in destination refined governance, balanced regional development, and sustainable transformation as a model for the global cultural tourism industry.
Hainan Province joins as this year’s featured province to highlight China's high-standard opening-up through the launch of island-wide special customs operations for the Free Trade Port alongside expanded visa-free policies.
Leveraging the Forum, Hainan and Macao will drive substantive progress in policy complementarity and resource sharing while opening new avenues of cooperation in multi-destination tourism itineraries development, reciprocal visitor flows, and international MICE synergies.
Organisational support
This edition of the Forum is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic of China and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, maintaining long-term strategic partnerships with UN Tourism and the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).
It also works closely with leading international tourism organisations, including the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), European Travel Commission (ETC), World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF), World Tourism Alliance (WTA), International Mountain Tourism Alliance (IMTA), and Sino-International Entrepreneurs Federation (SIEF).
In doing so, the event is continuously building global governance synergy to write a new chapter in sustainable global cultural tourism development.
