PHNOM PENH: Cambodia announces the launch of the "Cambodia: Safe and Green Tourism Destinations" campaign to ensure the success of the re-opening of international tourism. The Minister of Tourism, Thong Khon, has said that the success of this campaign is based on the rate of vaccination as a benchmark.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the campaign, Minister Thong Khon said that building community immunity against Covid-19 is the main goal of this campaign. He advised to jointly make this campaign a means of promoting tourism in Cambodia after the Covid-19 crisis to effectively support the ASEAN Tourism Corridor, the ASEAN Internal Tourism Movement, strengthen the resilience of Cambodia's tourism sector, and jointly strengthen the campaign support mechanisms.

The Managing Director of the Tourism Industry, Nep Samuth, said that the launch of the Safe and Green Tourism Destination Campaign now comes after Cambodia successfully hosted the ASEAN Tourism Forum 2022 on 16 January, including a study on changing tourist attitudes, stepping into the "new normal" path of world tourism, the use of new technologies and concepts in today's tourism.

He said that the campaign aims to implement the ASEAN travel corridor, linking the tourism destinations of one corridor to another, and organizing its tourism destinations in each country in the ASEAN region to be safe and low-risk to respond at both the national level and strengthen its readiness to enter into implementation within the ASEAN framework, especially in 2022, while Cambodia is ASEAN chair.

The "Cambodia: Safe and Green Tourism Destinations" campaign will be divided into two levels: the capital-provincial administration level and the private sector level, which will develop an assessment based on the roadmap on the plan to restore and promote tourism in Cambodia and in the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis, including the implementation of health and safety measures.

The assessment is divided into three levels: excellent, good and moderate, based on four main indicators: tourism business, tourism staff, tourism industry and market business, following the Minimum Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) along the new normal trajectory and through the achievement of complete vaccination.