Ministry Pushes Support of Ecotourism

KHMER TIMES
SOK CHAN



The Tourism Ministry on Monday released a joint statement with relevant stakeholders in the tourism sector to support and promote ecotourism and community-based tourism in Cambodia.

Tourism Minister Thong Khon said at a tourism conference that ecotourism and community-based tourism were growing regionally and globally with ecotourism rising about 20 percent per year.

He said the government was making Cambodia an attractive and competitive destination for ecotourism, pushing the development of green businesses which contribute equal benefits to relevant stakeholders, help reduce poverty, and preserve and protect natural resources and the environment.

“Ecotourism is considered an effective tool to reduce poverty in rural areas by expanding tourism activities to remote areas in order to create jobs that contribute to reducing migration of locals to the city by ensuring an equal share in the growth of the sector,” Mr. Khon said.

Mr. Khon said to promote ecotourism and community-based tourism, relevant stakeholders need to support both public and private sectors, development partners and the people of the communities themselves.

“We cannot develop ecotourism if there is no support from the community. The people in the community determine the success of ecotourism development. The development must serve their interests, generate income directly or indirectly for the community, create jobs and reduce the migration of local people,” he said.

Thourn Sinan, chairman of the Cambodia Chapter of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, told Khmer Times that in promoting the ecotourism market, the association had encouraged communities to maintain their original identities.

“We have pushed our members to promote ecotourism products to local and international tourists as well as travel agents in other countries,” Mr. Sinan said.

He added that there were some challenges regarding ecotourism in the Kingdom such as accessing sites of interest, hygiene, knowledge of the tourism sector, services, and homestays. He stressed that the unique culture of each tourism site created tourist demand and each tourism site must try to maintain its cultural uniqueness.

Mr. Sinan added that government had good structure from the state to local level, but knowledge on policy and implementation was incomplete. “We have the plan on paper, but the implementation is lacking,” Mr. Sinan said.

Ho Vandy, secretary-general of Cambodia’s National Tourism Alliance, told Khmer Times that the private sector had promoted ecotourism and community-based tourism long before the government’s policy, as this task was their job.

“The private sector has promoted ecotourism and community-based tourism for a long time prior to the government issuing the policy. For example, the government issued the principle of homestays in 2008, but the private sector was already doing it,” he said.