Cambodia plans to attract up to 300,000 Japanese tourists to the country by 2020, as direct flights connect Phnom Penh with Tokyo early next month, Tourism Minister Thong Khon said.
“Our big strategy hinges on direct flights between Cambodia and Japan. And when it happens we will have hope of attracting more Japanese tourists to Cambodia,” the Khmer Times on Thursday quoted him as saying.
“We hope to have 300,000 Japanese tourists visit Cambodia by 2020 when these direct flights happen and we are gearing up to train more Japanese-speaking tour guides to cater to them,” he added.
According to Khon, the Tourism Ministry plans to certify at least 700 Japanese-speaking Cambodian tour guides from the current 500 in the country.
All Nippon Airways (ANA) is ready to launch direct services linking Tokyo's Narita airport and Phnom Penh on Sept 1.
Japanese ambassador to Cambodia Kumamaru Yuji welcomed the direct flights and said it will augur well for bilateral trade ties between Japan and Cambodia.
“It will strengthen business relations and also provide a good opportunity for attracting more tourists,” he said.
According to ANA, there will be seven round-trip flights a week using the Boeing 787-8 midsize jet.
At present, there being no direct flights between Japan and Cambodia, Japanese tourists need to transit in either Bangkok, Hanoi, Singapore or Seoul.
“Most Japanese tourists and businesspeople don’t like to hop on many transit flights to get to a destination. They prefer to depart from one place and arrive in another country directly,” Khon said.
The minister said there are plans to allow Japanese tourists to use the yen currency in Cambodia to attract them to visit the country.
In 2015, Japanese tourists ranked number seven in the top 10 list of foreign visitors to Cambodia. In that year, Cambodia recorded 193,330 Japanese tourist arrivals.
Hosaka Akihiko, deputy general manager of the outbound travel promotion division of the Japan Association of Travel Agents, said Cambodian tourism authorities should do more to promote the country among younger Japanese travellers.
“These younger tourists travel more and when they come back they tend to get their friends and relatives to visit the countries they have been to,” he said.