Minister of Tourism Thong Khon urged US-ASEAN Business Council (US-ABC) members on Monday via video conference to invest in the Cambodian tourism sector.

Khon presented several tourism investment opportunities to the council, which is an advocacy group to foster economic growth and trade ties between the US and ASEAN, and encouraged its members to invest in the tourism community and the ecotourism sector.

“US-ABC promised to pursue investment opportunities in tourism during the Covid-19 crisis and once it is over. We also requested that it continue to cooperate with the ministry on projects,” he said on Tuesday.

Leaders from well-known companies including Google, Visa, Agoda and Expedia Group attended the meeting with the idea of drafting a plan to re-establish tourism cooperation.

US-ASEAN senior vice-president and regional managing director Michael W. Michala, a former US ambassador to Vietnam, said at the meeting that he would urge cooperation with Cambodia to help solve business problems, according to a press release.

Khon said Covid-19 has impacted tourism with 2,956 businesses employing 45,405 people closed or suspended across the country.

“Job loss has a very negative effect on the economy and society,” he said.

Cambodia earned more than $18 million in revenue from ticket sales to Angkor Archaeological Park in the first five months of the year, a 64.18 per cent drop from the same period last year, according to a press release from the Angkor Enterprise.

The number of foreign tourists – 386,093 – is down 65.46 per cent year-on-year.