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PHNOM PENH, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has established the China Ready Center (CRC) to cater to roughly 2 million Chinese tourists expected to visit the country per year by 2020, as well as to improve the skills of local tourist operators working with Chinese clients, the Khmer Times reported on Thursday.
Tourism Minister Thong Khon, while making this announcement at the inaugural National Tourism Workshop on Sunday, said: "The China Ready Center was set up recently due to the rapid yearly growth of Chinese tourist arrivals in the country."
"This center will facilitate research on the requirements and demands of Chinese tourists as well as strengthen the Chinese language and cultural skills of Cambodian tourist operators," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
"The Ministry of Tourism will cooperate fully with the CRC to ensure its success," added the minister.
Early this year, the Ministry of Tourism released a White Paper titled "China Ready for Cambodia Tourism" outlining a five-year strategy for attracting Chinese tourists to the country with the aim of getting 2 million of them to visit the country per year by 2020.
In the first four months of this year, Cambodia recorded about 275,000 Chinese tourist arrivals, up by 13.6 percent compared to the same period last year. Last year, 694,712 tourists from China visited the kingdom and this was a 24 percent increase from 2014.
Ho Vandy, secretary general of Cambodia's National Tourism Alliance, said that the CRC was crucial for attracting large numbers of Chinese tourists to the country.
"The Chinese inbound tourism market is progressing and we should not lose sight of it," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
