The decision of Cambodia to launch e-visa will facilitate the tourism arrivals in the country. Cambodia e-Visa was officially launched on the 17th April 2006, as a solution to the problem many tourists and…
The decision of Cambodia to launch e-visa will facilitate the tourism arrivals in the country. Cambodia e-Visa was officially launched on the 17th April 2006, as a solution to the problem many tourists and business travellers faced to obtaining visa to enter Cambodia.
The previous status made it difficult for tourists to enter the country with obvious impact on Cambodia`s tourism revenues so the concern of the Cambodia Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation was primarly to facilitate the process for people obtaining their visa.
TravelDailyNews International asked Mr David Ng e-Visa Consultant in the Cambodia Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation why did Cambodia take this decision: “Cambodia having Angkor Wat as one of The Seven Forgotten Wonders of Medevial Mind contribute as a major source of revenue to the country. Thousand of tourists visit Angkor Wat every month and yet there are still tourist that finds it difficult in obtaining Cambodia Visa. One of the method to increase tourist visiting Cambodia is by making Tourist Visa easily obtainable,” said Mr. Ng.
Asking about the benefits for Cambodia Tourism from the launching of e-visa Mr Ng said, “We believe with electronic visa (e-Visa) it will help increase Cambodia Tourism industry by giving tourist a hassle-free and convenient method of applying visa compared to the conventional method. Tourist now don`t have to courier their passport to the nearest Embassy to obtain the visa, no more hassle of travelling a long journey to the Embassy, documents are not complete, queuing in line at Embassy and unable to go to the Embassy during working hours. All this methods are now being eliminated, giving tourist the opportunity to apply the tourist visa at home, office, during their free time and virtually anywhere.”
Although the e-visa facilitates the process many countries from Middle East are still excluded from this. “Currently e-Visa is not available to the Middle East countries as tourist from this region would require to submit additional documentation or paper work in order to obtain the Visa; these are part of the requirements set by the government of Cambodia. We are in the discussion stage with the Cambodia government to see how best we could help Middle East Nation in obtaining an e-Visa,” expained Mr. Ng.
