Visit Siem Reap 2024 Campaign to Boost Tourism Sector
- By Teng Yalirozy
- and Rin Ousa
- March 18, 2024 6:52 PM
SIEM REAP – The government launched the ‘Visit Siem Reap 2024’ Campaign to attract more visitors to Cambodia’s tourist hotspot, which is having a hard time recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prime Minister Hun Manet officially launched the campaign during the opening ceremony of the eighth River Festival on Mar. 16. To speed up the success of the campaign, the PM has called all tourism officials, local authorities and tour agents to work hand in hand for initiating more tourism activities in Siem Reap province.
Tourism Minister Sok Soken also highlighted the strategic significance of the campaign at the press conference held by the Club of Cambodian Journalists on Mar. 17 in front of the Angkor Wat temple.
“The Visit Siem Reap 2024 campaign, together with the 2024 Cambodia-China people-to-people exchange year and the Cambodia-India tourism year, will help us to initiate more tourism activities with priority markets which can boost more cultural exchanges and people-to-people exchanges,” Soken said.
“There will be a lot of cultural activities, interaction at government and government level, government and private sector level, private to private sector level and business to business sector level.
“With the coordination of the Ministry of Tourism, all the engagement activities will be on the horizon,” he said.
Talking about the tourism activities, Hun Manet agreed to hold annual events in Siem Reap province and other tourist destinations in addition to sporting and cultural events.
To attract more tourists to the country, the PM also suggested hosting a drum dance or ‘Chhay Yam dance’ in all of the country’s airports in the upcoming Khmer New Year to welcome tourists upon their arrival in Cambodia.
Chhay Sivlin, president of the Cambodian Association of Travel Agents (CATA) said that CATA has started to work with all relevant parties to accelerate the success of the campaign.
“To promote the significant tourism potential in Siem Reap province, CATA has also invited influencers and media from other countries to explore the traditional and cultural sites of the province,” Sivlin said.
“Recently, CATA has invited 16 journalists from eight news outlets from Australia to publish articles about Siem Reap province which can draw Australian tourists to visit the province. Probably next month, CATA also plans to invite more journalists from Australia to the province.
“In May, more journalists from France and Saudi Arabia will also be invited to travel to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap province,” she said.
Sivlin said the Visit Siem Reap 2024 campaign will draw more international tourists to the province as well as the country as a whole.
Recently, Cambodia has received two awards from the prestigious World Travel Awards, including Asia’s Leading Cultural Destination 2023 and Asia’s Leading Youth Travel Destination 2023.
Tourism Sector in the Next Ten Years
During his Mar. 17 press conference, Sok Soken highlighted the ministry’s new tourism strategy aiming to turn Cambodia into one of the leading global destinations.
The strategy involves the sub-strategy of BUILD plus 3Ds. Soken said “BUILD” includes Brand Management, Unique Selling Point Marketing, Inbound Design Quality Travel, Leverage on Endowment and Diversification, and Develop Competitive Sites and Resources. Additionally, 3D includes Design Institutional Structure, Digital Transformation, and Developing Capability.
“All of these are the significant strategic outlook for the tourism sector aiming to boost more bilateral interaction, multilateral interaction with the regional partner and global community,” Soken said.
“With the advancement of technology, artificial intelligence, computing, and the internet, it will have tremendous interaction to the global growth story including Asia, ASEAN, and the Mekong sub-region.
“With these strategic outlooks, no matter what the world will look like, I believe Cambodia will be there and the country will be competitive, sustainable and inclusive at the same time,” he said.
