The designation of Macao as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy adds a powerful international branding to the city’s portfolio that already includes the listing of The Historic Centre of Macao as UNESCO World Heritage site in 2005, and following the inscription of the collection of “Chapas Sínicas” (Official Records of Macao During the Qing Dynasty (1693-1886)) on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. Macao is an associate member of UNESCO since 1995.
To celebrate the designation of Macao as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, the Macao SAR Government will launch a series of activities locally and internationally, to raise the awareness about the designation. A number of initiatives will also be rolled out in different fronts like enhancing vocational training, organizing international gastronomy forum as an annual event, participate in Creative Cities organized international exchange events, and also the setting up of a management unit that comprises both public and private sector to implement and supervise all the initiatives and projects undertaken, amongst others. All actions and initiatives will correspond to the UCCN mission of using creativity as a driver for sustainable urban development.
In terms of inheritance, the designation is set to endorse the global recognition of Macao‘s more than 400-year old culinary legacy, arousing interest among the young generation in gastronomy culture, especially in Macanese cuisine and providing favorable conditions for food traditions to continuously thrive.
As for the creativity aspect, the designation is expected to stimulate stakeholders in gastronomy and agents in other creative sectors to explore how culinary and other aspects of culture can fuse to diversify the economy. This will not only broaden the creative capacity in gastronomy but also enable Macao to collaborate with other UCCN members in different creative areas to experiment synergistic initiatives, such as gastronomy with films, music, design and more.
In terms of exchange, the network is expected to inspire and broaden Macao’s creative capacity in gastronomy and crosscutting initiatives by learning from member cities’ best practices and experiences, while fostering more opportunities for global cooperation with UCCN cities.