Cambodia-China Tourism Forum 2024 officially kickstarted yesterday in Siem Reap province under the theme ‘Revitalization of the Chinese Tourism Market to Cambodia: Challenges, Perspectives and Recommendations’.
This forum aimed at promoting tourism and cultural exchange, especially to enhance cooperation between the two countries, promote tourist flow and attract more Chinese investors to Cambodia’s tourism sector – in line with the Ministry of Tourism’s BUILD+3Ds strategic initiative as well as contribute to the promotion of the ‘2024 Cambodia-China People-to-People Exchange Year’ and ‘Visit Siem Reap 2024’.
The Cambodia-China Tourism Forum 2024 was presided over by Prak Phannara, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Tourism (MoT), Dy Rado, Siem Reap Provincial Deputy Governor, Chen Cong, Minister Counsellor of Chinese Embassy in Cambodia and other officials.
Addressing the event, Phannara said that the forum is an important meeting with relevant stakeholders, especially the private sector from Cambodia and China as well as relevant inter-sectoral to jointly discuss challenges, visions and recommendations to promote the growth of tourists between the two countries.
He said that the forming of this forum reflects the attention of the two heads of government of both countries, especially the good cooperation between the Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia, the Chinese Embassy and the Chinese provincial administrations to strengthen and expand Cambodia-China friendship.
Phannara said that the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) continues to consider the tourism sector as the ‘green gold’ of Cambodia.
“Cambodia is well-prepared to welcome the return of Chinese tourists and investors by facilitating the hospitality environment for Chinese friends and investors to Cambodia,” Phannara added.
He urged the forum to focus on discussing the use of technology in tourism, especially digital advertising, electronic payments, and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to facilitate the travel of tourists from both countries.
Siem Reap Provincial Deputy Governor Dy Rado said that in the first eight months of 2024, Siem Reap province received more than 650,000 international tourists, an increase of 31 percent compared to the same period in 2023.
“We see the most visitors, including Americans ranked first, Britain second and French tourists third,” Rado said, adding that although the growth of tourists is a bit slow now, all kinds of tourism businesses have gradually started reopening to welcome tourists to visit our Siem Reap province.”
According to the Ministry of Tourism, in 2023, Cambodia received about 5.45 million international tourists, including about 540,000 Chinese tourists and about 18.5 million domestic tourists.
In the first seven months of 2024, Cambodia received about 3.7 million international tourists, an increase of 23.2 percent, of which 460,000 are Chinese tourists, an increase of 45.7 percent.
(Source: khmertimeskh )