Cambodia to host World Ecotourism event

The third World Ecotourism Conference will be held in the Cambodian capital, possibly this September, according to event organiser Lee Cong Loong, a keynote speaker at Wednesday's ASEANTA conference.On the sidelines of the half-day conference, he said the UNWTO endorsed conference would definitely be hosted by Cambodia, but there were challenges in finding a suitable time slot.

He had earlier asked for a July date, but reckoned meetings with Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism would settle on a date later in the year possibly in September.Last year the event was held in Malaysia attracting 250 delegates from the eco-tourism community in Asia Pacific. The inaugural event was hosted by Laos in 2009 and attracted 350 delegates.

At the time Lao PDR officials believed the event would be permanently sited in the country, a view not shared by its creator Mr Lee, who insisted the event had a worldwide agenda and needed to move annually.However, he conceded that Laos was an ideal destination based on its commitment to eco-tourism.“But this is a UNWTO endorsed global event so one of the requirements is that we take it to various destinations that are linked to eco-tourism,” he said.

Source = ttrweekly