The Ministry of Tourism is preparing a draft Code of Ethics and a Code of Professional Conduct for public and private tourism vocational schools to ensure that education and training in the travel profession is as effective as possible.
The Third Sub-Working Group of the Royal Government-Private Working Group for Rehabilitation and Promotion of Cambodia’s Tourism During and After the Covid-19 Crisis on April 20 held a meeting to discuss ongoing work and future directions.
Tourism ministry secretary of state and sub-working group chairman Chea Bora told The Post that the meeting had approved the latest drafts of the codes, which will be submitted to working group chairman and tourism minister Thong Khon for review.
He said the codes would provide “additional spiritual support” for tourism training schools, supplement any existing rules or sets of tenets, and bring their curriculums up to “another level”.
“The draft is nearing completion and is still being reviewed and approved by the leadership. There’ll be another meeting in May to finalise the draft, and it may be completed by the middle of this year,” Bora said.
Cambodia Association of Travel Agents adviser Ho Vandy echoed Bora’s sentiment, saying that the documents are “truly necessary” to promote skills development at training facilities to produce professionals with “genuine quality”.
Vandy said Covid-19 had pressured the majority of tourism students and trainers to give up their careers and stop developing their skills, but as the industry revives from its slump with the carefully guiding hand of the government, more professionals, trainers and trainees have been inspired to return to the field.
“These codes are essential, seeing as how we’ve lost a great deal of resources in the tourism sector over the past two years, with some turning to other trades,” he said.
“There is a shortage of human resources.”
Bora said that once the draft codes are finalised, the ministry plans to share the documents with the Kingdom’s vocational training institutions, before they are officially put into practice.
