Cambodia to reopen its door to vaccinated foreign tourists

Cambodia to reopen its door to vaccinated foreign tourists

Cambodia will allow foreign tourists who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 to visit the country’s most tourism attractive site – Angkor Archeological Park, in a move to revive the hard-hit tourism sector.

Tourism Minister Thong Khon said that the vaccinated foreign tourists may also be exempt from undergoing the 14-day quarantine upon arrival.

This, he added, is expected to take place in the fourth quarter of this year.

“The Ministry of Tourism is studying the possibility of reopening to foreign tourists who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and are from low-risk countries,” he said, adding that this new initiative is expected to kick-start in the fourth quarter to help the Kingdom’s tourism sector which has been badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic for more than a year.

“Whether or not to quarantine the vaccinated foreign tourists is still being discussed with the Ministry of Health,” said Khon, adding that the outcome of the discussion will be submitted to the government for endorsement.

The initiative of reopening Cambodia to vaccinated tourists, Khon said, is in line with the government’s move to vaccinate at least 90 percent of the population including those in the tourism sector to ensure that all tourism destinations, services and products are safe.

“We need to build confidence in all vaccinated tourists that Cambodia is a safe place to visit with no fear of contracting the deadly disease,” he added.

Chenda Clais, president of the Cambodia Hotel Association, applauded the move and said that the reopening for foreign tourists will contribute to recovering the sector’s growth.

“The reopening is to help the tourism-related businesses and hotels and it will help regenerate job opportunities to people, especially those who lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 crisis,” Clais said.

Last year, the number of foreign tourist arrivals to the Kingdom decreased by 80 percent to 1.31 million and domestic tourists dropped by 20 percent to 9 million.

The dropping tourism dried $3 billion as revenue away from the sector and injected into the country’s economy, the ministry said. Khmer Times