The Ministry of Tourism has been devising various plans to attract more international tourists to the country this year by promoting several events, including the Cambodia Visit 2023 campaign.

Cambodia will host the 32nd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games and 12th ASEAN Para Games this year, and the ministry has been focusing on both events to bring more foreign tourists to the Kingdom.

The working group of the governments and representatives from the private sector agreed on five key action plans to attract international tourists and support the Cambodia Tourism Year 2023 campaign.

The third meeting of the working group and the private sector was held at the Ministry of Tourism yesterday, the ministry said in a statement.

Tourism minister Thong Khon, chairman of the meeting, expressed confidence that the draft document of the policy measures for the implementation of the ‘Year of Cambodia 2023’ campaign would be supported in the joint meeting with Dr Aun Porn Moniroth, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Finance.

The working group meeting discussed the progress of the work of the government and the private sector to restore and promote tourism in Cambodia after the Covid-19 pandemic.

The meeting decided to continue the implementation of the five-point action plan.

The first point is the drafting of policy measures to implement the ‘Year of Cambodia 2023’.

The ministry estimates that the Cambodia 2023 Visit campaign would be able to attract at least four million international tourists and about 15 million domestic tourists.

The goals of Visit Cambodia 2023 include the introduction and promotion of in-depth tourism destinations and new Cambodian tourism products in nine priority tourism markets through public relations strategy, advertising, etc.

Another goal is to attract national and international tourists by creating attractive tourism events at the international, national and local levels.

Such events can be festivals, sporting, and tourism events. The events would be held at least once a month throughout the year.

Meanwhile, Khon said on Wednesday that China was the most important outbound tourism market in the world. “China’s resumption of outbound tourism is very beneficial not only to Cambodia but also to the whole world,” he said.

The minister said the Kingdom is ready to welcome Chinese people, tourists and investors. He also pointed out that Chinese tourists have significantly contributed to the kingdom’s socio-economic development and poverty reduction.

“After China’s reopening on January 8, we hope that Cambodia will attract at least one million Chinese tourists in 2023,” he said. The country received only 110,000 Chinese tourists last year because of the travel restrictions in China due to its zero Covid policy.

Cambodia received 2.36 million Chinese tourists in the pre-Covid-19 pandemic era in 2019, helping it earn around $1.8 billion, according to the Ministry of Tourism.

Cambodia’s economy is expected to register good growth this year due to the recovery in its tourism, export growth and increase in foreign direct investments.