Kampot Department of Tourism Highlights Results of Collaboration

During the event, Mr. Say Sinol, Director of the Department of Tourism, highlighted some key achievements fruited from the joined efforts of the department, private sectors, and MIGIP, whose goals are to contribute to job creation, revenue generation, the improvement of people’s livelihood and poverty alleviation through tourism.

“Swisscontact has been momentous in Kampot tourism development in the past years. One of the major achievements is the development of Kampot Tourism Marketing Strategic Plan. We also established Technical Tourism Industry Working Group (TTIWG), the first working group of its kind in Cambodia,” said Mr. Sinol during the ceremony.  

To increase the competitiveness of the tourism sector in Kampot, MIGIP focuses on strengthening destination management structure, products, marketing, and skills through public-private partnerships at the sub-national level. To achieve this vision in tourism, MIGIP has been working in the following intervention areas:

• Strengthen destination marketing: by developing sub-brands through the Visitor Flows marketing strategy. 4 main visitor flows were developed and have been used as strategy to promote the destination Kampot. They include Kampot Town Cultural Heritage, River Life Experience, Countryside Exploration and Bokor National Park.
• Improve service quality and skills: by providing in-house trainings aligned with the national standards for low-skilled workers. In this intervention, more than 600 low-skilled workers and 30 local trainers were trained and certified through Hospitality Kampuchea (HoKa).
• Strengthen specific visitor flows: by supporting local businesses to develop new products and activities targeted to specific market segments. Swisscontact supports the development of various tourism products such as Heritage Walk Tour, Countryside and Cuisine Tour, Self-Guided Tour at Trapeang Sangke Community-based Tourism, Kampot Pepper Trail, and refurbishment of bicycle rickshaws and the rickshaw tour itinerary.
• Enhance destination management structure: by promoting public-private partnership in destination management. Technical Tourism Industry Working Group (TTIWG) was created as a public and private platform. The working group also participate in various tourism fairs, workshops, and exchanges, locally and internationally.

During the same event, Mr. Kevin Robbins, Deputy Country Director of Swisscontact in Cambodia, emphasized the importance of collaborations, without which the fruitful results of this project would not be achieved. “We didn’t do all these hard works [alone], with our partners we did this together. There are government offices, associations, tourism working group, the private sector; and in any success that we achieve here is because of your hard works and our collaborations together,” said Kevin.

Swisscontact strongly believes that after the project coming to an end, the concrete tools, resources, relationship, and experiences that have been developed will continue to support Kampot as a thriving tourism destination.