Cambodia has established the China Ready Center (CRC) to cater to roughly two million Chinese tourists expected to visit the country per year by 2020, as well as to improve the skills of local tourist operators working with Chinese clients. Minister of Tourism, Thong Khon, while making this announcement at the inaugural National Tourism Workshop on Sunday, said: “The China Ready Center was set up recently due to the rapid yearly growth of Chinese tourist arrivals in the country.” “This center will facilitate research on the requirements and demands of Chinese tourists as well as strengthen the Chinese language and cultural skills of Cambodian tourist operators,” said Mr. Khon. “The Ministry of Tourism will cooperate fully with the CRC to ensure its success and also help it get accredited with a similar center in Australia,” added the minister. Early this year, the Ministry of Tourism released a White Paper titled “China Ready for Cambodia Tourism” outlining a five-year strategy for attracting Chinese tourists to the country with the aim of getting two million of them to visit the country per year by 2020. In the first four months of this year, Cambodia recorded about 275,000 Chinese tourist arrivals, up by 13.6 percent compared to the same period last year. Last year, 694,712 tourists from China visited the Kingdom and this was a 14.5 percent increase from 2014. But compared to neighboring Thailand and Vietnam, the number of tourist arrivals from China are still low. In 2014, Thailand recorded 7.9 million Chinese tourist arrivals while Vietnam recorded 1.6 million. Ho Vandy, secretary general of Cambodia’s National Tourism Alliance, told Khmer Times that the CRC was crucial for attracting large numbers of Chinese tourists to the country. “The Chinese inbound tourism market is progressing and we should not lose sight of it,” stressed Mr. Vandy. However, Mr. Vandy added a word of caution. “We also need to acknowledge that not all the 1,000 or so tourist agents and companies in the country focus solely on the China market. They also have to work with tourists from other parts of the world in order to diversify their businesses,” he pointed out. Instead, Mr. Vandy said, the Ministry of Tourism should also ensure that the CRC receives full cooperation from the private sector instead of just making it a government-supported tourism research center. For in depth analysis of Cambodian Business, visit Capital Cambodia .
Cambodia has set up the China Ready Center to serve the two million Chinese tourists expected by the same period last year. It will improve the Chinese language and cultural skills of local operators and conduct research into tourist requirements.