Cambodia sees tourism as ‘green gold’

[TRAVEL & TOURISM NEWS]

Dr Thong Khon

CAMBODIA’S Tourism Minister Dr Thong Khon recently dubbed tourism ‘green gold’ as he spoke of the industry’s importance to the country’s socio economic development.

In 2010, Cambodia’s domestic tourists were up around eight per cent to 7.7 million while the number of international visitors rose by 16 per cent to 2.5 million. Of these around 1.7 million came from the Asia-pacific region, 463,000 from Europe and 182,850 from the US.

And while numbers coming from Russia and India have been increasing steadily, the top 10 source markets were Vietnam, Korea, China, Japan, the US, France, the UK, Thailand, Australia and Taiwan.

Dr Khon said that in 2010 tourism generated around $1.7 billion accounting for 12 per cent of the national GDP and employing 400,000 Cambodians.

'Tourism, as a system, is a priority sector which contributes to building up socio economic development, job opportunities, income generation, improvements in livlihood and poverty reduction.

'Tourism is a vital part of the green economy since its revenue is directly integrated into the national economic current, enhancing the GDP and stabilising the commercial balance.'

Adding that tourism is among the government’s top 10 priorities, Dr Khon said ‘it is considered as green gold while rice is referred to as white gold’ pointing out that the country is expected to attract around eight million international visitors per year by 2020 with around half of these heading for Siem Reap.

The minister was speaking at a ceremony to mark the renaming of the five-star Angkor Palace Restort & Spa in Siem Reap as the Grand Soluxe Angkor Palace Resort & Spa (pictured) following the property’s partnership with Soluxe Hospitality Group, the Singapore-based international hotel chain which is owned by China National Petrolium Corporation.

Welcoming the group Dr Khon said the United Nations World Tourism Organisation forecasts Chinese outbound tourism will reach 100 million travellers per year by 2020, of which Cambodia expects to receive around 1.2 per cent.

'I strongly hope that this new brand name will attract more international tourists, especially Chinese, to visit Siem Reap and the rest of Cambodia,' he said.

And praising the hotel’s achievement in reaching the ASEAN Green Hotel Standard Dr Khon said he hoped the new management would keep up the good work in helping turn Siem Reap into a model tourism eco-city.