The Cambodia Tourism Board (CTB), formed three months ago, was instituted with a specific objective to promote the tourism sector in the international markets. Ith Vichit, Chief Executive Officer of CTB, is bent on meeting the target set by the Ministry of Tourism. Speaking exclusively to Khmer Times, Vichit dwells on how the CTB has already started consulting business operators from both within the Kingdom and overseas and concurrently holding workshops at all levels to gather views and feedback from stakeholders. He also talked about how the CTB has recalibrated
its focus on promoting ‘Angkor Wat and Beyond’ and improving the 4As – Attractions, Amenities, Accessibility and Accommodations
KT: What immediate goals have you set for yourself and the board in promoting Cambodia’s tourism sector?
Ith Vichit: CTB has sprung into action since the July 10, date of my nomination as CTB CEO. We had carried out our first workshop with the private sector where more than 200 people have signed up and participated. CTB has set up a number of private sector driven task forces to work together to find ways to improve the 4As (Attractions, Amenities, Accessibility and Accommodations).
We have also joined the Ministry of Tourism in overseas exhibitions such as China-ASEAN Expo in Guilin, China, Tokyo Expo, Japan, Henan’s Shaolin International Festival in Zhengzhou, Henan, China. CTB was expressly asked by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation to take care of Cambodia’s booth at the Francophony Village during the Summit of Francophony in Paris on October 2-6.
CTB is currently visiting and meeting NTOs and tour operators at ITB Asia in Singapore during October 23-25 to build relationships and lay the ground work for some familiarization trips to come. We are also participating for the first time in a major tourism travel mart, setting up a 30m2 Cambodia booth at London World Travel Mart on November 5-7. A number of private sector has actively responded and will be participating at the booth with their own representatives and bringing news reporters to promote Cambodia. We exhibit many logos of hotels, spa, including Cambodia Angkor Air’s (CAA). CAA is sending some of their staff to attend including some flight attendants. This is what we call a pull marketing where we start to build more visibility and awareness on the global stage.
Apart from our overseas forays, we plan to carry out two or three familiarization trips during Q4 to promote inbound tourism from some key ASEAN countries within the context of ‘Plus One’ strategy. The SWOT analysis has allowed us to understand better what is Cambodia’s competitive positioning and the key issues that we need to improve and improve fast. We need to substantially improve our image, our branding, our positioning and visibility overseas while at the same time rapidly improve our products and services offerings (Attractions, Amenities, Accessibility and Accommodations). It is a pull and push marketing efforts that we need to carry out simultaneously. Needless to say that all efforts in tourism require substantial investments. CTB has turned three months old on October 10. We are now hastening further our work as we have access to the first tranche of our funding only during the second half of October.
KT: One of your key commitments is to end the distinction between high and low seasons in Cambodia’s tourism. How do you plan to achieve this?
Ith Vichit: First, let’s use the word Green Season instead of Low Season. Cambodia must promote visitors from the middle-east, Australia and New Zealand during the Green Season as they want to spend their summer holidays far away from unpleasant heat or from unpleasant cold. Along the same line and to help cushion the seasonality curve, we should encourage the public and private sector to do their best to schedule a number of regional and international meetings during the Green Season instead of the High Season.
KT: How will you promote Cambodia as a year-round destination rather than just an extension of other regional trips?
Ith Vichit: There is no long haul flights coming to Cambodia. As a result, our international airports can welcome only regional flights. Direct long haul flights will take place only once our tourism industry is booming. However, pure tourism arrival alone is not enough. We also need a booming business tourism as business tourism means more MICE activities and air cargo business. MICE is a huge business but we need international standard convention centers to tap on MICE segment. For air cargo to boom, Cambodia needs to produce high value added goods. Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam have many direct long haul flights. Their first export goods are electronics and microprocessors. These goods obey to JIT manufacturing process (Just in time) where high value manufactured components need to be shipped swiftly. Hence, they are usually shipped via air cargo to industrialized nations.
KT: Many countries have developed successful tourism platforms, such as visitrwanda.com in English EPL stadiums which get millions of audience every week. What steps are you taking to give Cambodia’s tourism sector more visibility on such international platforms?
Ith Vichit: CTB is definitely working on it and on many fronts, both on the push marketing and pull marketing. We are charting our media strategy for 2025 within the budgetary constraint that we have. It is our hope that CTB will have a more substantial budget to allow Cambodia to compete for air time in the regional and global media. Despite being a well-established global consumer brand, Coca Cola still spend few hundred million of dollar each year. If Coke does not do it, Pepsi will step in to fill the vacuum. The same applies for the marketing of nations and tourism. As the adage goes, out of sight out of mind.
KT: You mentioned that the CTB will hold its first private sector workshop soon. What are the main challenges facing Cambodia’s tourism industry that you hope to address at this event?
Ith Vichit: CTB first private sector workshop was held on July 25, three days after CTB’s first board meeting. The workshop is to gather the views and feedback of all business operators, the challenges they face and how we can find solutions together. That workshop has led to the set-up of a number of task forces, driven by business operators volunteers. They have given us very precious inputs on what need to be improve in terms of the quality of the destination. Existing task forces are Kep Kampot, Sihanoukville and Islands, Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. I would like to take this opportunity to say a big word of thanks and appreciation to all the task force members who have shown a high level of commitment and passion to brainstorm and escalate their candid input and feedback to CTB.
KT: Cambodia aims to attract 6.4 million international visitors by 2025. What key markets or countries do you see as the most promising for achieving this goal?
Ith Vichit: Cambodia should focus on the following countries: ASEAN countries, Europe (France, Germany, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) Turkey, Gulf Cooperation Council (Qatar, Bahrein, Oman, UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia) India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, etc.
KT: With the rapid growth of the tourism industry, infrastructure development becomes crucial. What infrastructure projects are being prioritized to support this anticipated growth?
Ith Vichit: We need to address and enhance the 4As (Amenities, Accessibility, Attractions and Accommodations). Our key tourist locations need further enhancement in the 4As. The most pressing infrastructure is the link between the new Siem Reap International Airport and Siem Reap city center and the link between the upcoming new Techo International Airport and Phnom Penh.
KT: Collaboration between the public and private sectors is central to your mission. How do you plan to foster stronger partnerships between the two to ensure the sustainable growth of tourism in Cambodia?
Ith Vichit: CTB is a Public Private Partnership agency whereby key players of the tourism value chain sit at our board. We are in constant communication with business operators across the value chain. Business operators comments and inputs are valued and listened to. We have tabled all the relevant private sector concerns at CTB Board Meetings to get solutions and the support of line ministries.
KT: Tourism diversification is one of your major goals. What new tourism products or experiences do you plan to introduce to attract a wider range of visitors?
Ith Vichit: We are now promoting what we call Angkor Wat and Beyond. The Beyond are our beaches, our capital city Phnom Penh, key coastal cities like Koh Kong, Kep, Kampot, Sihanoukville and its islands, beautiful rural area like Battambang, Rattanakiri, Mondulkiri, Stung Treng, Kratie as well as more remote areas for eco-tourism. To be in a position to meaningfully promote eco-tourism, accessibility needs further improvement.
KT: Cambodia’s airports and airlines play a significant role in the tourism value chain. How do you plan to collaborate with key aviation partners like Cambodia Angkor Air and Siem Reap Airport to enhance connectivity and accessibility?
Ith Vichit: Both Cambodia Angkor Air and Siem Reap Airport sit at CTB board. Hence, we have been working very closely with them, including Cambodia Airports, the concession holder of the current Phnom Penh International Airport and Sihanoukville International Airport. We will soon start working very closely with OCIC, the investor of the new Techo International Airport of Phnom Penh and its airport operator. Cambodia Angkor Air has played a critical role in developing and adding regional flights. We understand that CAA is expanding its aircraft fleet further with five additional aircraft in 2025 and promoting more visitors from Henan, China. CTB has established a constant dialogue with Siem Reap International Airport, CAA and Air Asia Cambodia (AAC). We plan to do the same with Sky Angkor and Cambodia Airways as well as with all regional airlines flying to Cambodia.
KT: Sustainability has become an important focus in global tourism. How do you plan to ensure that the growth of tourism in Cambodia remains environmentally sustainable?
Ith Vichit: Environmental sustainability is about values, habits and practices that start at community level. Ensuring tourism sustainability requires a close cooperation among the key stakeholders to implement the needed policies that cater to it within the context of a community-driven tourism development. Unlike some countries, Cambodia does not suffer from over-tourism, yet. We have a long way to go to reach a saturation level. What we need to urgently attend to is a more mundane environmental challenge: noise tourism and unsightly street trashes in the key city centers that we have mentioned. The beautification of our city centers with proper zoning to control noise, trashes and night entertainment is urgently needed.
KT: What role do you see digital marketing and online platforms playing in your efforts to promote Cambodia as a top global tourist destination? How will the CTB leverage these tools to reach a broader audience?
Ith Vichit: CTB has been meeting with key OTAs to explore some forms of cooperation to allow us to reach the regional and global audience. We are going to present some proposals to CTB Board soon. We are also exploring on how to leverage on social media like TikTok, Instagram and streaming/OTT services such as Amazon Prime, Netflix or Apple Movie. Cambodia needs to gain global visibility through attractive and inspiring documentaries and movies that target the global audience. We are working on it. It requires no doubt a substantial financial investment but the positive economic multiplier effect and returns derived from tourism activity is undeniably multifold and exponential. Tourism contribution to Cambodia GDP was 12 percent which represents around $4 billion.
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