Tourists visit an agro-tourism resort in Kampong Chhnang province in 2020. Hong Menea
The Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training has provided its 85th cash payment to over 4,500 suspended workers in the tourism industry due to the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, while tourism-reliant businesses have reportedly continued to struggle financially.
In an August 29 notice, the ministry said the 4,517 workers came from 51 tourism-related businesses which have suspended their jobs due to the pandemic.
Wing Bank (Cambodia) Plc will send a message about picking up a benefit payment to the workers’ phone numbers if they have one on file.
The payments will be made in riel and the amount will depend on the number of days suspended from work. Each worker will receive 121,500 riel ($30) for 11 to 20 days of suspension and 162,000 riel for 21 days to a month of lay-off.
Wing will transfer the payments back to the government if anyone fails to pick it up within 10 days.
In order to withdraw the payment, they have to bring along an ID card and show the messages on their phone to a Wing agent. No services fees will be charged to the workers.
If any worker is not receiving the messages alerting them to a payment, they should first check to make sure their employers submitted the correct phone number for them.
Thuon Sinan, chairman of the Pacific Asia Travel Association Cambodia Chapter (PATACC), said the ongoing payments did make an important contribution towards helping employees who might otherwise have nothing at all.
He said that while tourism has recovered a little, it is still nowhere near where it was pre-pandemic or where they need it to be right now, and most of the industry in the Kingdom is still beset by financial woes.
“Maybe it seems to have recovered to some people, but in all actuality the amount of rebound has been small in scale and it is slow to improve,” he said.
He continued that August saw a lot of hotels reopen, but the arrivals of visitors are not picking up much and the economic situation has not yet significantly improved. Given the current situation, he said tourism will still need help from the government for some time.
“We wait and see if something changes in October and November this year because we know that many countries around the world have reopened flights – they are not closing, banning or restricting flights.
“However, people have begun to talk about the economic crisis due to inflation as well as wars and natural disasters, which pose risks and cause chaos day after day. All of these have taken their toll on tourism,” Sinan emphasised.
The Ministry of Tourism reported on August 27 that over 500 hotels and guesthouses in Cambodia had reopened as of July 31, while nearly 200 locations continued to suspend business and at least 29 had gone out of business entirely.
