The Mekong Tourism Forum 2023 kicked off Wednesday in Cambodia's southwestern port city of Sihanoukville, attracting some 250 delegates from 19 countries and regions.
The two-day forum themed "Rethinking for Resilience and Digitalization" serves as a forum for regional tourism stakeholders to discuss strategies to boost the development of the regional tourism industry in the post-pandemic era.
The in-person event was hosted by Cambodia's Tourism Ministry. Tourism Minister Thong Khon said this was the third time that Cambodia hosted the forum, which was vital for tourism insiders to share best practices, experiences, and current status of tourism development within the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS).
"I expect the key stakeholders from public and private sectors gathering together today will create a unique opportunity to spearhead innovative and collaborative frameworks for tourism recovery towards resilience in the post-COVID-19 era," he said in a speech at the forum's opening ceremony.
Khon said that in 2022, Cambodia received more than 2.28 million international tourists, with 1.5 million coming from GMS countries, generating a gross revenue of 1.41 billion U.S. dollars.
The minister said as the pandemic has been brought under control throughout the GMS, it is essential for all GMS member countries to work for the idea "Six Countries, One Destination" via the implementation of the GMS Tourism Recovery Communications Plan.
The GMS has six countries, namely Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.