Prime Minister Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen has given seven recommendations to further strengthen Cambodia’s tourism sector which is suffering from the current world problems, including war and sanctions.
Addressing to the closing ceremony of tourism recapitulative conference held here this morning, Samdech Techo Hun Sen said agriculture, services and industry are recovering, but tourism not yet as it is suffering from the world current crisis caused by war and sanctions.
Samdech Techo Hun Sen advised all stakeholders to ensure the sustainable, resilient and inclusive development by promoting the implementation of tourism development strategy and framework and other strategies set forth to boost the tourism sector; to continue to promote tourism restoration by continuing to carry out tourism business protection programme; and to increase the attractiveness of Cambodia for national and international tourism markets by strengthening the implementation of safety rules and SOP against Covid-19 and promoting the diversification of tourism products and services with quality, safety and highly competitive prices.
The Premier also called for the strengthening of the implementation of new tourism governance mechanisms to continue ensuring resilience in the tourism sector regarded by Cambodia as “Green Gold”; continued promotion of internal tourism movement; strengthening and increase of access to Cambodia by air, land and sea, and the launch of “Visit Cambodia Year 2023” campaign on the occasion of hosting the SEA Games – ASEAN Para Games in 2023 to promote Cambodian tourism.
This year, Cambodia is expected to receive at least one million foreign tourists and 2 million next year, said H.E. Thong Khon, Minister of Tourism, adding that in the first six months of 2022, more than 500,000 international tourists visited Cambodia, a sharp year-on-year increase by 394 percent, but a decline by 84.8 percent compared to the same period in 2019.
In the first half of this year, domestic tourist movement was tracked over 7 million. National tourists were recorded at some 6.33 million, a surge of about 219 percent, while domestic foreign tourists at 0.68 million, up about 380 percent compared to the same period in 2021.
Tourism is one of the four pillars supporting Cambodia’s economy. The country attracted up to 6.61 million international tourists in 2019, generating a gross revenue of US$4.92 billion, according to the Ministry of Tourism.
