Authorities of Siem Reap province, a resort town in northwestern Cambodia, are planning to hold events every weekend to attract tourism and to provide more services to locals in order to bring much-needed income to local businesses and revive the tourism.

Ngov Sengkak, Director of Siem Reap Provincial Department of Tourism, introduced these plans at a press conference where he talked about how the tourism industry is responding to the ongoing critical COVID-19 pandemic.

The director said that these plans can only continue with the help of close cooperation from the relevant people including government partner organizations and enterprises in the tourism sector. He revealed that these events will not only continue in Siem Reap in the future, but also organize tours to nearby destinations such as Banteay Sly, Phnom Penh and Prey Krom. Groups of families and friends will be able to enjoy activities such as camping, cooking classes, boating, mountain biking and many other fun activities.

He expects that these plans will benefit the local people and communities a lot by recovering the loss of tourism revenue caused by the pandemic in the last 8 months. The plans will be established complying with all health and safety measures as health and safety come first.

The director further said, “Even though we really want to push ahead with these plans, we do realize that the world as well as Cambodia has not fully recovered from COVID-19. Because of this, strict safety measures must be put in place for this plan to go ahead.”

The World Heritage listed Angkor Wat and surrounding temples of Siem Reap are considered as most beautiful and must-visit destinations for tourists travelling from Southeast Asian countries, but last year the city began to show signs of slowing down, including fewer tourists, and closing of hotels or resorts and declining ticket sales for Angkor Park.

During the 5-day holiday, domestic tourism activities injected approximately US$ 100 million into Cambodia’s tourism industry. Under the chairmanship of Tourism Minister Thong Khon, the figure was announced at a meeting to review domestic tourism activities during the 5-day holiday.

The cultural province Siem Reap attracted the most tourists during the Khmer New Year holiday from August 17 to 21. According to the report from Ministry of Tourism, 2,14,050 people visited Siem Reap province.

In regard to total COVID-19 transmission in Cambodia, the country has reported a total number of 274 confirmed cases and no death caused by the virus. However, 273 patients tested positive to COVID-19 have completely recovered, as of Wednesday (Sept 9).