France provides 1.7 mln USD for tourism recovery in Cambodia

A tourist site in Siem Reap, Cambodia before the COVID-19 breaks out. (Photo: shutterstock.com)

The French government, through the French Agency for Development (AFD), has provided a grant of 1.5 million EUR (1.7 million USD) to help restore Cambodia’s post-pandemic tourism sector, according to the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism.

Cambodia’s tourism sector has been severely affected during the COVID-19 outbreak due to the loss of foreign visitors as a result of the suspension of flights from many countries, Khmer Times reported.

The ministry estimated that as of May, around 2,956 tourism-related businesses in Cambodia have been closed, leaving a further 45,405 people unemployed.

Nep Samuth, General Director of Tourism Industry and Secretary-General of the National Committee for Clean Cities Assessment of the Ministry of Tourism, confirmed that AFD has agreed to provide 1.5 million EUR in funding under the Tourism Capacity Building Project 2020-2023 to participate in the rehabilitation of tourism in Cambodia after the pandemic.

According to Samuth, the two sides have exchanged views on the introduction of measures to support Cambodia’s tourism sector in the period of COVID-19 and starting from the implementation of tourism safety measures, promoting domestic tourism movement to ensure that Cambodia is a quality and warm tourism destination for visitors.

The fund will be used for 24 development projects to participate in the recovery plan during and after the pandemic, including strengthening the governance of the tourism sector, which will provide capacity building to strengthen the private sector in the tourism industry,  enhancing the institutional capacity and public-private partnerships, and supporting the promotion of ecotourism./.

VNA