Short of qualified staff

PHNOM PENH Cambodia tourism authorities say the country’s tourism sector needs to attract more professionals to work in the industry to improve competency and offer quality services to visitors.

Khmer Times quoted Tourism Minister, Thong Khon, saying Cambodia’s tourism sector needs to attract more professionals to the industry as there was a serious lack of trained tour guides and operators.

“The country still needed more skilled tourism personnel if we are to meet the target of 7 million tourists by 2020,” he said.

According to the Ministry of Tourism, only 500 Cambodians had completed an ASEAN course on standards and service in tourism and hospitality, in order to be registered with the ASAEN secretariat.

The minister added: “We still do not have enough professionals in the sector and most tour operators and guides that we have are not fully qualified…we need to increase our standards, as well as provide a service which is consistent with the current tourism standards in ASEAN.”

The ministry deputy general director, Try Chhiv, noted that only 20% of workers in the tourism industry were trained with adequate education and know-how.

That number would have to rise dramatically by 2020 to accommodate the growth forecast for the industry, he said, adding that Cambodia’s tourism industry directly employed 620,000 people, but it was far too small.

“We need at least 1 million people directly employed in the industry to provide good quality service to tourists  on par with standards in ASEAN.”

According to Asian Development Bank, tackling the skills gap is a key challenge facing Cambodia if it is to maintain its impressive tourism growth.

ADB Economist chief, Shang-Jin Wei, said most of the country’s labour force was young, but often not equipped with skills that matched business needs, so the challenge for policymakers was to address this gap.

Last year, Cambodia attracted 4.77 million international visits compared to 4.50 million in 2014.