Cambodia - Kingdom of Wonder

I have mentioned them briefly earlier: the adverts on CNN to promote Cambodia as a holiday destination. The country did the same thing about three years ago. The difference is, this time the commercials are much more professional and - finally - the Ministry of Tourism has come up with a slogan: Cambodia - Kingdom of Wonder.

What I still don't get - and that's the same as three years ago - why they are promoting the Water Festival, which takes place next week. As if, say, Joe the Plumber, will say to his Cathy or whatever her name is: "Hey see that Cathy? There's a Water Festival in Phnom Penh next week, let's go there!"
(Not that Joe the Plumber would ever go to a country that far away from home, but you get the picture).

Anyway, in general it's a good thing Cambodia promotes itself and especially now, as millions of people around the world will have watched the presidential campaign on CNN. And yes, these Cambodia commercials also ran during election night.

The ever getting better daily The Phnom Penh Post wrote that tourism officials expect the number of visitors to Cambodia to reach 2.2 million by the end of the year. Wow, when I came here, in 2003, Cambodia attracted not even 1 million. So, a 120% increase in just 5 years time. Not a bad achievement.

Now, Cambodia is discussing an advert deal with the pan-Asian news broadcaster Channel News Asia. Ahum, well, all I can say is that my Khmer restaurant in Phnom Penh and the Cambodia Cooking Class were already featured on CNA. Twice, and for free...