Cambodia won an award for “Leading International Tourism Marketing Campaign 2022” from the Asian Tourism and Hospitality Awards (ATHA) programme of the Asian Hospitality Human Resource Association (AHHRA) based in Malaysia.
Tourism experts hope it will bring recognition to the Kingdom’s tourism sector and help it grow further.
This is the first time that the AHHRA has partnered with TIN Media to host the ATHA. Award winners with representatives attending the ceremony included Cambodia, Tanzania, Bulgaria, India, the Philippines and Malaysia, while other countries were recognised virtually.
According to the tourism ministry, the “Leading International Tourism Marketing Campaign 2022” award was given to Cambodia in a ceremony on March 17.
Cambodia Association of Travel Agents adviser Ho Vandy said on March 21 that the award that the Ministry of Tourism received could help further expand the Kingdom’s tourism market in the ASEAN region and beyond.
“Winning an award shows that Cambodia has the ability to drive the growth of tourism by promoting new destinations in both the ASEAN region and the world. We expect that Cambodia’s good reputation will attract more international tourists, especially during the upcoming SEA Games,” said Vandy.
Thourn Sinan, president of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Cambodia Chapter, said that any award wins are valuable in advertising Cambodia to the world.
However, Sinan stressed that Cambodia still needs to do a lot of work to improve the Cambodian tourism situation after the Covid-19 crisis.
“We are happy and appreciate receiving this award. But we must do more work because the world today is very competitive, especially in advertising tourism destinations,” he said.
Prak Vuthy, director of the tourism ministry’s Overseas Marketing and Promotion Department, told The Post that the award reflected the excellent leadership of the tourism minister and the participation of all stakeholders in tourism in Cambodia, both public and private, in implementing a roadmap and plan to rehabilitate and promote Cambodia’s tourism sector post-pandemic.
“The award was due to the collaboration in 2022 when the tourism ministry received familiarisation delegations from India, South Korea and China and prepared campaigns of direct advertising of Cambodia’s tourism in the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam.
“It was also for our promotions in international markets through embassies, consulates, consultants and travel agencies abroad and participating in various international tourism fairs in the Chinese market in the form of virtual exhibitions.
“And there were online campaigns about Cambodia’s tourist destinations through websites, mobile apps, Facebook, TikTok, WeChat, Instagram and YouTube,” Vuthy said.
The award winners were determined through online voting by 47,515 people in the tourism industry. There were more than 200 candidates from 23 countries around the world. The awards were divided into various categories, including tourism, hotels, resorts, restaurants, technology start-ups and leaders actively involved in the tourism industry.
