The Holiday and Travel Magazine: Stepping stone: Sandbox schemes a prelude to opening up Kingdom

Tuesday, 2 November 2021

Stepping stone: Sandbox schemes a prelude to opening up Kingdom

The government has embarked on a “roadmap” towards restoring and promoting tourism in Cambodia during and after the Covid-19 crisis.

Minister of Economy and Finance Aun Pornmoniroth said yesterday that the special sandbox scheme to allow quarantine-free visits to Sihanoukville, Koh Rong and Dara Sakor from November 30 was only a first step in the overall strategy to gradually reopen the country to international visitors.

He said the sandbox scheme will be closely monitored and evaluated and, if successful, will lead to the opening up of the whole country for quarantine-free visits.

Pornmoniroth said that looking at the overall tourism market after the outbreak of Covid-19, the international and regional international tourism movement has changed with emphasis now on high consideration for safety, confidence in destination selection and use of technology and innovation in tourism, both in demand and supply.

He said that in this context, the strategic plan on the opening of vaccinated tourism and policy measures to promote the internal tourism movement from 2021-2023 is based on the principle of maintaining a balance between socio-economic activities and ensure safety and public health for citizens and tourists.

Pornmoniroth noted that after Sihanoukville, Koh Rong and Dara Sakor, the sandbox scheme will be extended to Siem Reap province in January, also as part of the overall strategy.

He also requested to the Ministry of Tourism and the private sector to continue their efforts to attract target tourists from safe and low-risk international market sources, as well as to diversify tourism products and services in line with the new context of the needs and supply of international and domestic tourism markets.

Tourists visit Preah Khan temple. KT/Aim Valinda

Pornmoniroth urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote activities on “tourism diplomacy” by promoting cooperation with countries that are the main sources of tourism markets in Cambodia.

He also ordered the capital and provincial administrations to prepare various tourist destinations within their jurisdictions to be attractive and safe destination to attract domestic and international tourists.

In a statement issued yesterday, Prime Minister Hun Sen said that the reopening of Cambodia to international visitors would be done step-by-step, starting with vaccination tourisms at the end of next month.

He said that for the past 18 months, the Covid-19 crisis has brought disaster to the whole world, in which global tourism, as well as in Cambodia, has been negatively affected seriously.

“This has caused countries around the world to open and close many times as large-scale vaccination campaigns are being carried out to build resilience in the community to promote socio-economic recovery in line with the new normal trajectory,” said Mr Hun Sen.

He said that based on the vision of “thinking about the people, thinking about the economy, thinking about the future”, the government has adhered to proactive and pragmatic policies, with a clear plan to restore and promote Cambodia’s tourism.

“The reopening of international tourism will be done in stages, based on specific methods of identifying areas or destinations for safe tourism, as a function and rate of vaccinations, the infections and deaths rates to respond to and manage potential risks from new viruses and the readiness of the Cambodian tourism industry in line with the new normal trajectory in the Kingdom,” he said.

Mr Hun Sen’s statement comes after Cambodia recently announced the resumption of direct flights from three Asean countries – Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia – and after he ordered relevant ministries to look into reciprocating Thailand’s initiative to reopen the country, quarantine-free, for fully-vaccinated air passengers from Cambodia and other selected countries.

Source: (https://www.khmertimeskh.com/.../stepping-stone-sandbox.../)

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