Crisis • Resilience • Evolution -- Building a Tourism Economy for a Shared Future

The 12^th Global Tourism Economy Forum • Macao 2026

To be held on 15 to 17 October

MACAO, Sept. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- How does the global tourism economy turn its scale and reach into a force for lasting transformation? The 12^th Global Tourism Economy Forum (GTEF) will return to its founding city Macao, China, from 15 to 17 October 2026. Bringing together political and business leaders, academic elites, and representatives from international organisations across five continents, the Forum 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.

The global landscape today sees international cooperation facing rigorous tests amid intersecting geopolitical tensions, climate pressures, and global economic uncertainties. Now more than ever, the world needs to break down barriers and foster connection, with the tourism economy serving as a powerful bond that unites communities across geographical divides. As the timeless wisdom observes, "A partnership forged with the right approach defies geographical distance." According to the latest data from UN Tourism, international tourist arrivals reached a record 1.52 billion in 2025, vividly proving that tourism transcends its role as an economic sector to become a core driving force for mutual learning among civilizations, restoring global trust, and spurring sustainable growth. The decision by the United Nations to designate 2027 as the "International Year of Sustainable and Resilient Tourism" directly addresses this call of our time. 

As a premier flagship event in the global tourism economy sector, the Global Tourism Economy Forum was founded in 2012 and has successfully hosted eleven editions. Having brought together over 15,500 participants across 88 countries and regions, the Forum serves as a vital bridge connecting China with the international community to drive cultural tourism alignment, facilitate trade, and promote mutual learning among civilizations. The newly released 15^th Five-Year Plan for Cultural and Tourism Development by China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism designates GTEF as a key national strategic platform, explicitly mandating the expansion of its global reach. Following its inclusion in the 14^th Five-Year Plan, being named once again in national strategic planning marks the Forum's official transition from a Macao-born exchange platform into a key vehicle for China's high-quality opening-up in cultural tourism, as well as a major contributor to global tourism rules and trends.

Standing at a new historical starting point, the 12^th Global Tourism Economy Forum • Macao 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.

This edition 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 the 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.

In addition, the Forum features 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.

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), continuously building global governance synergy to write a new chapter in sustainable global cultural tourism development.

Reflecting on crises reveals shifting landscapes, building resilience unleashes collective strength, and aiming for breakthroughs drives transformation. The 12^th Global Tourism Economy Forum • Macao 2026 looks forward to joining hands with global stakeholders to navigate challenges with greater ecosystem resilience, forge stronger synergies through deeper cooperation, and lead industry breakthroughs with visionary innovation, shaping an open, inclusive, prosperous, and sustainable future for global cultural tourism.

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About the Global Tourism Economy Forum

The Global Tourism Economy Forum (GTEF), established in Macao SAR in 2012, is a premier international platform dedicated to sustainable tourism development. Serving as an essential bridge between China and the global tourism community, the Forum convenes leaders from government, business, academia, and international organizations to address the sector's most pressing opportunities and challenges, establishing itself as one of the most influential annual summits in the global tourism economy.

Since inception, GTEF has successfully hosted 11 editions, welcoming more than 15,500 participants from 88 countries and regions, and featuring over 780 internationally renowned speakers to build a high-level network for dialogue and practical cooperation across sectors.

For more details and the latest updates regarding the Forum, please visit https://www.gte-forum.com/en/ or follow the official GTEF social media accounts.

Media Enquiries

Occasions Asia Pacific
Stella Wong	Jade Liu
Tel.: +852 3678 0123	Tel.: +852 3678 0135
Email: stellawong@occasionspr.com	Email: jadeliu@occasionspr.com

Occasions Asia Pacific

Stella Wong

Jade Liu

Tel.: +852 3678 0123

Tel.: +852 3678 0135

Email: stellawong@occasionspr.com 

Email: jadeliu@occasionspr.com

 

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Crisis • Resilience • Evolution -- Building a Tourism Economy for a Shared Future

Compact, power-efficient platform combines edge AI, multi-sensor perception, flight-controller connectivity, and integrated robotics software for next-generation UAV development

TAIPEI, Oct. 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Advantech, a global leader in AIoT and Edge Computing, today announced the ASR-D501, a compact AI companion and mission computer designed to accelerate the development of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Powered by the Qualcomm^® QCS6490, the ASR-D501 delivers up to 12 TOPS of AI performance within a sub-10W power envelope, while integrating multi-camera vision, sensor connectivity, flight-controller interfaces, wireless expansion, and the Advantech Robotic Suite for Drone.

Designed specifically for size-, weight-, and power-constrained airborne applications, the ASR-D501 provides a unified computing platform for real-time AI inference, visual perception, localization, sensor fusion, and mission-level processing. It supports advanced autonomous capabilities including object detection, visual localization, VIO, SLAM, obstacle awareness, and GNSS-denied navigation.

Power-Efficient AI Computing for Autonomous UAVs

The Qualcomm QCS6490 combines heterogeneous CPU, GPU, and NPU computing to enable AI workloads to run directly onboard the drone.

By processing perception and mission-level workloads locally, the ASR-D501 reduces reliance on continuous cloud connectivity while allowing the primary flight controller to remain focused on real-time flight stabilization and actuator control.

Supported AI workloads include:

• Object detection and tracking
• Semantic segmentation
• Visual inspection and anomaly detection
• Obstacle awareness
• Vision-based localization
• Sensor-fusion processing

Multi-Sensor Perception and Flexible Connectivity

To support increasingly sophisticated UAV perception systems, the ASR-D501 integrates five 4-lane MIPI-CSI interfaces, enabling flexible combinations of RGB, monochrome, stereo, and high-resolution cameras.

The platform also provides a 2.5 GbE interface, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports, and onboard interfaces including CAN FD, UART, I2C, and GPIO for connecting LiDAR, depth cameras, IMUs, flight controllers, ESCs, battery-management systems, and other onboard devices.

For long-range and BVLOS-oriented deployments, the ASR-D501 supports Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth, and 4G/5G cellular connectivity through M.2 expansion, together with an onboard Nano-SIM. This enables flexible communication architectures for telemetry, command and control, video transmission, and remote mission management.

Accelerating Development with Advantech Robotic Suite for Drone

The ASR-D501 supports Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and the Advantech Robotic Suite for Drone, providing a pre-integrated development environment for autonomous UAV applications.

The software environment connects high-level ROS 2 applications with flight-controller ecosystems including PX4 and ArduPilot, leveraging technologies such as MAVLink, MAVSDK, and MAVROS.

Advantech also provides validated reference workflows that integrate AI perception, visual localization, sensor fusion, mapping, object tracking, path planning, and flight control. By providing a connected software and hardware foundation from perception to flight-control integration, the ASR-D501 helps developers reduce integration complexity and move faster from hardware bring-up to autonomous-flight application development.

Built for Production UAV Deployment

The ASR-D501 is engineered to meet the practical requirements of industrial UAV deployment with a compact, fanless design and industrial-grade reliability.

Key specifications include:

• 100 × 60 mm compact form factor
• Approximately 50g board weight without heatsink
• 5–12V DC input
• Passive / fanless thermal design
• -20°C to 70°C operating temperature
• 3.5 Grms vibration resistance
• Industrial-grade ESD protection
• Lockable connectors
• Long-term product lifecycle support

Expanding Advantech's UAV Computing Portfolio

The ASR-D501 is part of Advantech's broader strategy to build a scalable computing portfolio for increasingly diverse UAV architectures and mission requirements.

Beyond the QCS6490-based ASR-D501, Advantech's UAV roadmap includes OSM- and SMARC-based SOM solutions for flexible system designs, as well as IQ9075M-based platforms for applications requiring higher AI performance and advanced sensor integration. In 2027, Advantech plans to further expand the portfolio with mid-range Qualcomm^® CQ8-based solutions.

By combining scalable computing platforms, robotics software integration, sensor ecosystem support, and long-term industrial lifecycle management, Advantech aims to provide drone developers with a clear path from autonomous-flight prototyping to increasingly intelligent and production-ready UAV systems.

To learn more about the ASR-D501 drone computing solutions: Link

Advantech robotics solutions: Robotics eBook / Robotic Suite

About Advantech

Advantech is a global leader in intelligent IoT systems and embedded platforms, with the corporate vision of "Enabling an Intelligent Planet." To embrace the trends of edge computing and artificial intelligence, Advantech has adopted a sector-driven strategy centered on Edge Computing and Edge AI. The company focuses on five key markets: edge intelligent systems, smart manufacturing, energy and utilities, intelligent healthcare, and intelligent retail and services. By integrating its Edge Computing hardware platforms, WISE-IoT industrial IoT software platform, industry-specific Edge AI solutions, and domain expertise, Advantech enables collaborative business models for integrated industry applications and helps partners connect across the value chain. Advantech also actively co-creates industry ecosystems with partners to accelerate industrial intelligence. www.advantech.com

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Advantech Launches ASR-D501 AI Companion Computer for Autonomous Drone Applications