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Cambodian PM calls for more cooperation for ACMECS and CLMV tourism development
Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, has urged all ACMECS and CLMV nations to strengthen their cooperation for tourism development in the present and future, particularly in the post-COVID-19 crisis.
In his recorded welcome message for the opening ceremony of the 5th Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) Tourism Ministers Meeting and the 6th Cambodia-Lao PDR-Myanmar-Viet Nam (CLMV) Tourism Ministers Meeting held in Siem Reap province this morning, Samdech Techo Hun Sen said ACMECS and CLMV should further enhance the cooperation on tourism product diversification to ensure the complementarity and a sense of diversity to tourists in response to the changing post-COVID-19 tourism trend.
“In this sense, the Member States shall multiply efforts of cooperation on developing rural tourism including community-based tourism, eco-tourism, adventure tourism, health and wellness tourism, gastronomy tourism, etc. These truly respond to the increasing tourism demand and directly contribute to the local development. At the same time, ACMECS and CLMV should lay out a cooperation framework for supporting MSMEs to become the backbone for sustainable and resilient tourism development,” he said.
In the context of digitalisation, he continued, ACMECS and CLMV countries should promote more exchanges of experiences on the tourism digital transformation such as experience sharing on conducting the training programmes of digital literacy in tourism sector, digital skills development, as well as the use of digital technology for increased productivity and competitive advantages.
ACMECS and CLMV should further focus on promoting the ACMECS-Intra Traveler and CLMV-Intra Traveler and emphasise on more air, land and water connectivities including promoting self-driving tour, underlined the Cambodian Premier, supporting the continued campaigns “5 countries, one destination” and “4 countries, one destination” to attract tourists from the third countries.
Besides, Samdech Techo Hun Sen voiced his support for the consideration to establish ACMECS and CLMV tourism institutional mechanism, which can be a secretariat or any structure, to accommodate the implementation of plans of action of ACMECS and CLMV tourism that have been laid out. “Cambodia has a pleasure to host this entity,” affirmed the Prime Minister. AKP-Heng Panha