Foreign Minister sends advisors to visit Cambodia, piloting seamless tourism linkages “6 countries, 1 target”, while Cambodian Tourism Minister agrees to support kick-off before “Paetongtarn” visits Cambodia.
Mr. Dusit Manaphan, Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, together with Ms. Chaiyika Wongnapachant, Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the delegation met for bilateral discussions with Mr. Hoat Ha, Minister of Tourism, Kingdom of Cambodia, on the occasion of his visit to the Kingdom of Cambodia to discuss facilitating tourists, both border crossing and seamless tourism, after the Thai government approved the policy to promote tourism and the economy through the policy of ‘6 Countries, 1 Destination’, consisting of Brunei, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand. The policy negotiations will be initiated with Cambodia first before expanding cooperation to other countries. This discussion with Cambodia occurred after the leaders of both governments saw the importance of movin
g forward with the policy. The advisory team therefore expedited the submission of plans and schedules as assigned by the Minister of Foreign Affairs to show their readiness to receive and connect Thailand and Cambodia, including various immigration procedures. They proposed the establishment of target countries and territories that both Thailand and Cambodia see as having potential. and will receive visa exemption and use of Visa on Arrival (VOA) privileges from both countries, including Fast Lanes and possibilities, which Thailand has collaborated with neighboring countries in ASEAN to attract tourists from various regions through such policies.
The advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs also discussed with the Minister of Tourism of Cambodia about promoting joint tourism to create a single tourism destination identity among the 6 countries and jointly develop human resources in the tourism industry and strengthen the private sector in tourism among each other through the creation of tourism routes tha
t connect world heritage sites, the creation of a regional tourism calendar to connect important festivals between each other, such as the Thai-Lao-Khmer New Year, Chinese New Year, organizing activities to present benefits such as hotel discounts and special channels for entering the country, etc., including the exchange of knowledge between human resources in the tourism industry and organizing activities to strengthen tourism business networks in the region.
At the same time, they also discussed the development of transportation connectivity to expand transportation connectivity and increase travel options for tourists, both on land, water, rail and air, such as increasing flights between 6 countries by expanding routes to interesting cities. Initially, Thai Airways has a project to increase flights to Cambodia in Siem Reap Province, including proposing potential routes connecting tourism by water and rail, such as Chonburi-Rayong-Chanthaburi-Trat-Koh Kong-Sihanoukville-Kampot-Kep, which can promote water
tourism from Trat-Sihanoukville-Kampot to replace land tourism.
While the Minister of Tourism of the Kingdom of Cambodia agreed with Thailand’s “6 countries, 1 goal” policy this time and received the policy plans and schedules of the Thai side to discuss and consider implementing with relevant agencies of Cambodia, such as the Ministry of Interior, the Customs Department of Cambodia, before submitting them to the Cambodian Cabinet for consideration and approval, supporting this policy to be successful and able to start implementing before Ms. Paethongtarn Shinawatra, the Prime Minister, makes an official visit to Cambodia.
Source: Thai News Agency