In the last few years, the infrastructure to tourism destinations has been improved. There are more connections between provinces; many international borders with Thailand, Vietnam and Lao, PDR are open and operated, visa on arrival has been applied, and more tourism infrastructure was built to respond to the market demands. Moreover, Cambodia hosted a number of significant tourism events such Asian Tourism Forum in 2011, the 3rd World Ecotourism Conference in 2011 and ASEAN Summits in 2012.
The Tourism Strategic Development Plan 2012-2020, ecotourism policies, guidelines and many other documents have been developed and implemented to promote Cambodia to tourists as the “Kingdom of Wonder”. Community based tourism (CBT) is one of the main priorities in the Ministry of Tourism’s strategic development plan.
Community based tourism emerged in Cambodia in the late 1990s and has increasingly been applied by both local and international civil society as an alternative tool for community development and nature conservation. The number of CBT initiatives has mainly increased in Cambodia’s main tourism hubs: Northeast, Coastal Zone, and Tonle Sap area. Currently, there are roughly 50 CBT destinations in Cambodia (MoT, 2013). The Yeak Loam community (a Pinong indigenous group) in Ratanakiri province was the first CBT initiative in Cambodia supported by the DRIVE project, aiming at conservation of nature and indigenous cultures. Subsequently, in 2001 a CBT initiative was developed in the Chambok community in Kampong Speu province. The impressive success of Chambok resulted in a strong uptake among tourism stakeholders and encouraged more CBT initiatives throughout the country. The Ministry of Tourism has recognized Chambok as a best practice of CBT development and has declared it as a place for new CBT initiatives to learn from their experience.