PHNOM PENH,
February 26, 2014 - Cambodia sees its tourism sector continuing to be a
key factor contributing to the country’s growth in the long run, which
in turn has inspired the Government to diversify its tourism products
aimed at attracting more tourists to the Kingdom, said the officials at a
tourism conference on Wednesday.
Deputy Prime
Minister Dr. Sok An said although Cambodia’s cultural tourism—thanks to
the Kingdom’s abundance of more than 1,000 historic temples—continues to
be the center piece of the tourism industry. Nowadays, Tourism
diversification is much more needed to draw more visitors to Cambodia,
he said.
“We want
tourists to be thrilled after visiting other resorts in Cambodia, apart
from Angkor temple. We want them to bring back sweet memories of
Cambodia and consequently, to achieve this, we need to establish more
tourist products such as eco-tourism, community tourism… all of which
will comply with green tourism standards,” he said at the opening
conference on “the 2012- 2013 Tourism Annual Session and Action Plan of
Cambodia’s tourism towards the ASEAN Economic Community 2015.”
“We do not
want to see tourists, after visiting Cambodia, bring back home diseases.
So, we have to be clean and provide good services along with green
tourism.”
Dr. Sok An
said tourism sector has greatly contributed more than $2.54 billion (or
15.5 percent of GDP) to the country’s total GDP of $16 billion and that
trend looks firmly to increase in the future.
MORE APPROACHES INCLUDE MOVIES
Tourism
Minister Thong Khon said at the conference that with more
approaches—including tourism development, strengthening quality of
tourism service, coordinating and facilitating mechanism to support the
industry, promotion and marketing strategy, good governance, clean
resorts and good services, and competition of clean city through green
tourism—will be plus points to attract more visitors to the country.
Among the
approaches include also the encouragement of filmmakers from US-based
Hollywood, to India-based Bollywood to Europe and China to shoot movies
in Cambodia through which Cambodia’s fame, especially Angkor, will be
seen and heard in the outside world to see Cambodia as a tourist
destination.
Hollywood
based US filmmaker had produced Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in 2000, the
French tiger film Two Brothers by Pathe Film in 2003, and Angkor Smile
by Chinese film producer Kiang Ming in 2013.
Another
Chinese Film Company began its shoot of a movie in Cambodia on Wednesday
after its inauguration on Tuesday and is expected to complete the
shooting by the end of March this year.
The movie
features the life of a famous Chinese actress—whose life goes through
many struggles—including her living conditions, education, work, and her
love in Cambodian society. Such film will be screened in China and is
expected to draw hundreds of millions of Chinese audience.
“This movie
also helps the Chinese people to better understand about Cambodia so
that more and more Chinese people will visit Cambodia in the future,”
Deputy Prime Minister Sok An said.
Cambodia’s
open sky policy is also playing a vital role by transporting tourists to
visit the Kingdom. As of now, 24 foreign airline companies operate
direct flights from ASEAN, South Korea, Quatar, and China to Siem Reap,
the home of Angkor, and Phnom Penh.
Cambodia has
two domestic airlines to serve travelers flying from Siem Reap to
coastal province of Sihanoukville as well as to Phnom Penh and to
neighboring countries.
FIRST TIME FULL PEACE IN THE LAST FIVE CENTURIES
However, the
country’s peace, social security and political stability has largely
contributed to tourism development and this is possible thanks to the
win-win policy spearheaded by Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen in 1998
which ended the three decades of Cambodia’s civil war, said Dr. Sok An,
added that, “it is for the first time in the last 500 years that
Cambodia has enjoyed a full peace.”
H.E Dr. Sok An
called the concerned institutions to join hands with the Ministry of
Tourism on how to better utilize the country’s resources—through green
tourism—such as islands, bays and others to attract tourists’ attention
to Cambodia.
Cambodia
received more than 4.21 million tourists in 2013, a 17.5 percent
increase from 3.58 million in 2012, said the Tourism Minister.
Cambodia
expects to receive 4.7 million tourists this year and 5 millions in
2015. The Kingdom expects to receive between 7.5 to 8 million tourists
in 2020 which in turn will bring about $5 billion in revenue in addition
to millions of new jobs to be created, said Thong Khon.
However,
sustainable development is a must, said Dr. Sok An, prompting the
Government to set up a Heritage Management Framework (HMF) funded by
Australia along with others and work with Cambodia’s Apsara Authority to
ensure cultural tourism, such as Angkor temples, is well managed for
the protection and preservation of the famed temple built in 9th- 12th century.
Cambodia’s
growth is projected to be between 7 to 8 percent thanks to tourism after
agricultural and garment sectors and this has contributed to bringing
Cambodia’s flag to fly higher at the international stage since Cambodia
is presently ranked 11th among countries which gained high growth in the world over the last ten years, he said.
Cambodia is also ranked 5th among
the least developed country (LDCs) to reach Millennium Development Goal
(MDGs) target. Soon, Cambodia will be categorized as low middle income
country with its GDP per capita increases to $1,300 from currently
$1,000, said Dr. Sok An.
End.