CAMBODIA will establish a national committee for evaluating city cleanliness with an aim to boost international tourism, Minister of Tourism Thong Khon said yesterday.

The committee would work to beautify Cambodia’s cities, as well as maintain city and environmental sanitation. The move is part of an ASEAN-wide effort to make the region more appealing to tourists, Thong Khon said.

“The number of international tourists will increase after implementation,” he said.

Details as to how a city’s cleanliness is to be evaluated are still under discussion. However, industry insiders said a move towards cleaner cities would help attract more tourists to the Kingdom.

“I think it’s very good if it is done like this,” Ang Kim Eang, president of the Cambodian Association of Travel Agents, said yesterday.

“We agree with the government’s strategy. Clean cities, clean resorts and a clean country will attract more tourists.”

A plenary session of the Council of Ministers approved establishing a committee on Friday.

Previous Ministry of Tourism statistics show over a million foreign visitors arrived in Cambodia in the first four months of the year, increasing 13.2 percent on to the same period last year.