Cambodia running short of tourism staff

PHNOM PENH The Ministry of Tourism says Cambodia would need an additional 200,000 trained tourism professionals to serve a tourism industry that is set to attract a record 7 million international tourists by 2020.

Phnom Penh Post quoted the ministry deputy general director, Try Chhiv, saying in order to to the demands of 7 million tourists, the sector needs to urgently train more staff.

Currently, there are 620,000 Cambodians working in the tourism sector.

“If we have 800,000 to 1 million Cambodians trained in hospitality, we will be able to handle future growth,” he said.

To achieve the target, the ministry has developed a policy to promote vocational training for hotel and travel services focusing on 32 skill sets that will be taught by 12 vocational training centres.

“We need to strengthen our vocational training,” he said, adding that currently the country can only train 2,000 people a year.

The private sector has been encouraged to invest in skill training.

Training centres should be built to certify professionals that meet the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) standards. This would allow them to work within the region, but critics claim that would be counter productive as the country faces a critical shortage of trained staff.

Opening the labour markets of ASEAN benefits the Philippines that has a surplus of well trained tourism graduates who face difficulties finding jobs. Cambodia may have to hire mid-management staff from its ASEAN neighbour and hope it can persuade its own nationals not to seek employment overseas.

For the first seven months of this year, Cambodia attracted 2,756,693 international travellers increasing 3.4% from 2,666,315 visits during the same period last year. The 2020 forecast is within reach and that troubles tourism officials as destinations could become congested in the peak season months November to March.