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On 15 September 2019, on behalf of H.E. Dr. THONG Khon, Minister of Tourism of Cambodia, H.E. Mr. So Visothy, Under Secretary of State of the Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia, met with a Chinese media delegation organized by ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) for a familiarization trip to Cambodia from 15 to 22 September. The delegation comprises 7 journalists from 5 mainstream media, including China Daily, China Report, Sina.com, Tencent and Guangxi Broadcasting System.

Under Secretary So Visothy expressed his warm welcome to the delegation and profound appreciation to ACC for its efforts to help organize the trip. He said that people-to-people exchanges between Cambodia and China has a long history and their friendly cooperation is deepening as time goes by. Tourism is now one of the highlight areas in the bilateral relations. Since last year, China has become the biggest source of inbound tourists for Cambodia. He also mentioned that for the period of January-July 2019, the tourist arrivals from China to Cambodia reached 1.5 million, increasing over 37% year-on-year and accounting for a big portion of the total inbound market of Cambodia (3.8 million international arrivals in total). He believed that such activities as the media familiarization trip would effectively promote rich natural and cultural heritages and diverse tourism products of Cambodia in the Chinese market.

During the meeting, tourism and press officials of ACC expressed heartfelt thanks to the Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia for its kind invitation and warm hospitality. They also briefed the host on the mandate and role of each Chinese media. The destinations of this familiarization trip include the capital Phnom Penh, Preah Sihanouk Province, Kampong Thom Province and Siem Reap Province.

The year of 2019 has been designated as ASEAN-China Year of Media Exchanges as well as Cambodia-China Cultural and Tourism Year. To celebrated these important occasions, the Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia and ACC have cooperated well with each other on quite a few major projects with the media familiarization trip as the latest example.