The Cambodian Ministry of Tourism said in a statement that senior tourism officials of the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) held the 1^st Destination Mekong Summit to discuss various ways to revive tourism during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The summit held on Tuesday (Aug 25) via video conference due to ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The GMS countries consist of Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

The virtual meeting covered multiple topics including solutions to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, ways to restore regional tourism and measures taken by each GMS country to ensure the safety of tourists and to prevent the spread of the virus from one destination to another.

The meeting pointed out that the countries of the Greater Mekong Sub-region have very low infection rates as compared with other regions. But foreign tourists are still prohibited from entering into the countries because the risk of imported cases is still high.

In accordance to the statement, Thailand put forward the concept of a “Green Travel Bubble” on a bilateral or trilateral basis during the meeting. If it will successful, it can be expanded to a multilateral level. Under the concept of a “Green Travel Bubble”, travel restrictions are relaxed between two or more countries that record low local COVID-19 infection rates.

Cambodian Tourism Minister Mr. Tong Kong said at the meeting that although it is not yet possible to receive international tourists. Cambodia has implemented precautionary measures against pandemics in tourist attractions to ensure the safety of tourists.

According to data from the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism, the country received 1.18 million international tourists in the first half of 2020 due to the pandemic, a decrease of 65 % from 3.35 million in the same period last year.

In regard to COVID-19 transmission in Cambodia, the country has reported a total number of 273 confirmed cases which are under treatment and no patient has died due to virus. However, 265 patients who tested positive to COVID-19 have completely recovered from the virus, as of Friday (Aug 28).