The MoU focuses on tourism cooperation to open up new opportunities for the development of tourism between the two countries. The signing ceremony of MoU was held in the framework of meetting between two ministries.

Overview of the meeting (Photo: bvhttdl.gov.vn)

At the meeting, MOCST’s Minister Nguyen Van Hung stated, regarding tourism cooperation, in 1995, Vietnam and Cambodia signed a Tourism cooperation Agreement, followed by implementation documents. Currently, both sides have been implementing the MoU on tourism cooperation signed in 2015. Highly appreciative of the cooperation to promote tourism development, especially the overcoming of difficulties of the two countries' tourism during the pandemic.  This is the perfect time for both sides to review bilateral collaboration in terms of delegation exchange and tourism promotion.

Vietnam and Cambodia have renovated tourism products; operated several delegation exchange activities, notably the appearance of the Minister of Tourism of Cambodia at the International Travel Expo in Ho Chi Minh City.

MOCST’s Minister Nguyen Van Hung speaking at the event (Photo: bvhttdl.gov.vn)

Regarding tourist exchange, Vietnam and Cambodia always put attention to two-way tourist exchange, in which the number of Vietnamese visitors to Cambodia regularly ranks first among the countries sending tourists to Cambodia. Cambodian visitors to Vietnam grew positively (in 2022, Vietnamese visitors to Cambodia reached 466,170 arrivals, accounting for 21.7% of the total number of visitors of Cambodia and ranked second among the countries sending visitors to Cambodia).

Cambodian visitors to Vietnam have grown gradually each year (in 2022, Cambodian visitors to Vietnam reached 140,461 arrivals and ranked 4th among the source markets of Vietnam). For the first 4 months of 2023, Cambodian visitors to Vietnam reached 135,501 arrivals; Vietnamese to Cambodia in the first 3 months of 2023 reached over 200,000 arrivals.

The most common factor of the two countries is relying on culture resources to develop tourism, determining the development of tourism products based on heritage values, emphasised MOCST’s Minister Nguyen Van Hung. Additionally, MOCST’s Minister Nguyen Van Hung suggested a number of ideas to create new tourism products such as tourism through heritage regions, forming tours, routes to connect famous heritage sites of the two countries; building new tourism products with the spirit of 2 countries - 1 destination.

Vietnam will jointly support and create favourable conditions for Cambodia in training and improving the quality of tourism human resources, affirmed MOCST’s Minister Nguyen Van Hung.

He further added, Vietnam has always paid attention to tourism development with specific policies such as loosening visas or amending and supplementing the Law on Exit and Entry to create favourable conditions for citizens and tourists to come to Vietnam by air, land or  waterway.

Minister of Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia Thong Khon (Photo: bvhttdl.gov.vn)

According to Minister of Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia Thong Khon, although the Covid-19 pandemic has occurred since 2019, there have been 3 meetings between the two ministries. Highly praised for Vietnam's development of tourism in Phu Quoc, he suggested to create a connection between Phu Quoc and Siem Reap Province. A direct flight between these two famous tourist destinations is needed.

Dr. HE. Thong Khon hopes that both sides will cooperate closely and promote the development of tourism, especially after the implementation of the MoU. It is hoped that the number of Vietnamese tourists visiting Cambodia this year will be equal to the time before the Covid-19.

Vietnamese Minister Nguyen Van Hung and Cambodian Minister Thong Khon singing the MoU (Photo: bvhttdl.gov.vn)

After the working exchange session, the two ministers signed a MoU on tourism cooperation between Vietnam and Cambodia which is intended to push up tourist flows between the two countries by promoting cross-border cooperation activities, facilitating cross-border tourism, and increasing the frequency of direct flights between the two countries.

Thereby, the two sides agreed to continue implementing measures to strengthen tourism links, connecting the world heritage sites of Vietnam and Cambodia, creating favourable conditions for international flights between tourist destinations of both countries, as well as those from the third countries. Localities are encouraged to cooperate in connecting seaports between the two countries.

The two ministers also committed to enhancing the sharing of best practices in tourism training and education.

Tourism investment flows between the two countries will be boosted through forums and events which aim to promote investment opportunities.

The MoU of MOCST of Vietnam and Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia opens up many opportunities to develop tourism (Photo: bvhttdl.gov.vn)

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