Quality and Safety Standards

The tourism and hospitality industry has been booming across Southeast Asia until 2019. Although the post-COVID recovery of international travel has been slower, countries in the region have demonstrated strong resilience, or capacity to adapt and bounce back, particularly in response to new demands related to safety, hygiene, and service quality and sustainability.

At the regional level, ASEAN has actively promoted common norms and standards to enhance quality, safety, and competitiveness of businesses and services, and professional skills in the tourism and hospitality sectors. This effort materialized through key frameworks such as the ASEAN Tourism Standards, and ASEAN Guidelines on Hygiene and Safety for Professionals and Communities in the Tourism Industry. The Safety and Hygiene guidelines were endorsed by all ASEAN Tourism Ministers in January 2022 at the ASEAN Tourism Forum in Sihanoukville. To incentivise compliance with these standards, ASEAN introduced the ASEAN Safe and Warm Stamp, a quality mark awarded to tourism and hospitality operators through a certification process carried out at national levels by each country’s Ministry of Tourism.

Such regional standards and certification schemes represent a significant opportunity to promote quality based tourism and position Southeast Asia as a high-quality, clean and safe destination. The Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia has been mandated to lead the Pilot implementation of the Safety and Hygiene Guidelines, together with the Ministry of Tourism of Lao PDR. Cambodia The Kingdom is also playing a leading role in the ASEAN Mutual Recognition Arrangement on Tourism Professionals (ASEAN MRA-TP), actively driving the development of standards, training programs, and regional cooperation to enhance the quality of tourism professionals.

Despite these positive developments, many private sector stakeholders, especially MSMEs and foreign companies operating in Cambodia have encountered difficulties in getting access to the information on applying for ASEAN tourism certifications. Communication from the Ministry of Tourism (MoT) regarding the application process and relevant training/capacity-building remains limited, and practical guidelines explaining eligibility requirements, procedures, and responsible authorities are often unclear. As a result, some companies that may comply or are close to complying with ASEAN standards are unable to apply for or obtain the certificates due to a lack of information and institutional support.

In this context, the newly established Cambodia Tourism Board (CTB) could play a vital supporting role, in close coordination with the relevant authorities, by assisting private sector actors throughout the certification process and acting as a central point of contact between the MoT and the private sector, including for information dissemination, guidance, and capacity-building initiatives.

Tourism and hospitality operators that already comply, or seek to comply, to high safety and quality standards aligned with ASEAN frameworks face exclusion and uncertainty due to unclear application procedures for official recognition and certification. As a consequence, these businesses are unable to benefit from the visibility, credibility, and competitive advantage associated with receiving an ASEAN-recognised quality label. This limits their ability to differentiate themselves, attract international visitors, and fully capitalise on investments made to comply with high industry standards.