PHNOM PENH, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia provided a Chinese language training course for 120 Chinese tour guide teachers on Tuesday in a bid to improve the quality and capacity for Chinese-speaking tour guides.
Co-organized by Cambodia's Ministry of Tourism, the ASEAN-China Center, and Yunnan College of Tourism Vocation, the three-day course was held in northwestern Siem Reap province by Cambodian Tourism Ministry Secretary of State Pak Sokhom and ASEAN-China Center's Secretary-General Chen Dehai.
Sokhom said the course was held timely and in line with the ministry's human resource development plan for the tourism industry.
"The training course is very important to strengthen the capacity of Chinese tour guide teachers, as the number of Chinese tourists to Cambodia has increased rapidly," he said.
China is the largest source of foreign tourists to Cambodia.
Two million Chinese tourists visited Cambodia in 2018, up 67 percent from a year earlier, said a Cambodian tourism report, adding that during the first three months of 2019, some 683,436 Chinese visitors came to the kingdom, up 35 percent over the same period last year.
Cambodia's Tourism Minister Thong Khon said recently that the Southeast Asian nation was expected to attract 3 million Chinese tourists in 2020 and up to 5 million in 2025.
Cambodia is famous for three world heritage sites - the Angkor archeological park, the Preah Vihear temple and the Sambor Prei Kuk archeological site.
Besides, it has a pristine coastline stretching 450 km in four southwestern provinces of Koh Kong, Preah Sihanouk, Kampot and Kep.
