"We expect 500,000 Chinese tourists to Cambodia in 2015 and 1 million by 2020," Cambodia's Tourism Minister Thong Khon said Tuesday after a tourism conference with about 500 participants. "We set our tourism target for Chinese market because China is very big with 1.3 billion people and Chinese is rich," he added.The minister said that a lot of Chinese investors have already come here, so the country hopes to see more Chinese visitors here in coming years.
 

To achieve the goal, Cambodia will continue encouraging more direct flight connection between Cambodia and China; and will encourage owners of hotels, restaurants and tourism resorts to use three languages -- Khmer, English and Chinese -- in billboards, or promotional leaflets or brochures.
 

"Now, in our tourism promotion, we always think about Chinese tourists -- their language and hobbies," he said, "China is our key tourism market."Speaking during a presentation at the tourism conference on Tuesday, So Visothy, director of the Tourism Ministry's Marketing and Promotion Department, said Cambodia received 2.88 million international tourists in 2011, up 15 percent year-on-year. Of the figure, 247,200 were Chinese, up 39 percent."We believe that the target will be achievable because Cambodia is full of security, political stability and tourism potentials. Moreover, the diplomatic ties between Cambodia and China are excellent," he said.

 

Visothy highlighted some challenges in attracting Chinese tourists, including limited direct flight connections, limited promotion, and Cambodia's tourism products and services have not met Chinese market's demand.

 

"Also, visa fee to enter Cambodia is higher than that in neighboring countries and high fee of air fares and tour packages," he told the conference. He said the ministry will try to encourage airlines and tour agencies to offer competitive prices to Chinese touristsIn addition, it will push for training Chinese language to tour guides.