Sailing race in Preah Sihanouk province on January 2021. Heng Chivoan
The Ministry of Tourism is planning to organise Cambodian-Vietnamese-Thai tourism and sports events at Techo Square in Preah Sihanouk province from May 19-23. The events will promote the “Visit Cambodia Year 2023” campaign with the slogan “Every Day is a Wonder” as the Kingdom hosts the 32nd SEA Games and 12th ASEAN Para Games.
In an announcement, it said the planned events are part of a “strategic plan to attract domestic-international tourists to the coastal provinces of Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand”.
The ministry expects the events to include a total of at least 200 vendor booths, 50 international booths, 20 local and international newspapers and media institutions and more than 700,000 local and international guests.
Major features of the event include outreach workshops on coastal tourism development and planning, meetings between buyers and sellers of tourism products or services and sports from the coastal provinces of the three countries.
The sporting activities taking place will include “Kun Khmer” boxing, running, cycling and beach volleyball with two-man teams.
‘Our strategy’
Tourism minister Thong Khon said at a press conference last week that the province has a lot of tourism potential and is well-positioned for it, especially in terms of infrastructure, such as the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville expressway and new roads in town and to resorts that are easy and convenient for travelling.
“It’s very important to develop new tourism products for selling to international visitors and for the development of the islands. Organising major events such as the Visit Cambodia Year 2023 campaign and hosting the SEA Games and ASEAN Para Games are our strategy to promote Cambodian tourism destinations, especially Preah Sihanouk province itself, to the world,” Khon stated.
Ho Vandy, an adviser to the Cambodia Association of Travel Agents, said on April 30 that this is a good opportunity for business owners to promote themselves and sell their products and services, as well as find local and international business partners to expand their businesses as well as contribute to promoting Cambodia’s tourism services.
“Providing good quality services is important, but the promotion is more important. It’s something that we need to do to boost our tourism. There are many ways to promote tourism such as events, especially Cambodia-Vietnam-Thailand tourism and sporting events contribute significantly to attracting tourists,” he said.
According to the tourism ministry, Preah Sihanouk was visited by almost 900,000 domestic tourists during the three days of Khmer New Year. The province also had 58,889 visitors out of the nearly 790,000 tourists nationwide who extended their holiday for at least one week after Khmer New Year.
