2nd GMS Tourism Statistics Harmonization Workshop was held in Kampot, Cambodia on 15th August 2018.

2nd GMS Tourism Statistics Harmonization Workshop that gathered officials from 5 countries of Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia was held at Diamond Hotel, Kampot, Cambodia on 15th August 2018.

Background

The Tourism Infrastructure for Inclusive Growth projects share an objective to harmonize the way that tourism statistics are collected, analyzed and reported amongst the GMS tourism ministries. In support of these efforts, the Government of Cambodia hosted a workshop dealing with the harmonization of tourism statistics, convened in Siam Reap from March 23-25, 2016 a. The main objective of this workshop was to assist the GMS NTOs to understand the importance of collecting tourism statistics in a harmonized manner. As a follow-up to this first workshop, the Mekong Tourism Workshop on Data Harmonization Symposium is to further the discussions of two years ago, and also to take into account the outcomes of the 6th UNWTO Conference on Tourism Statistics held in Manila, Philippines in June of 2017.

Workshop Description

The workshop brought together representative members of the GMS NTO’s statistics Departments, intentional experts, and other relevant stakeholders. The purposes of this workshop are to support the adoption of the Global Sustainable Tourism Dashboard as the unifying platform from which to create harmonized tourism statistics and to drive tourism performance measurement in the GMS. This was presented and endorsed by the member countries at the TWG-40 Meeting in Yangon in December 2017.​​​

Workshop Goals and Outputs

The goals of the Mekong Tourism Workshop on Data Harmonization include:

1. Adopting the Global Sustainable Tourism Dashboard as a platform and system to measure sustainable tourism in the Greater Mekong Sub-region in a harmonized manner, and

2. Educate the public and private sector on the importance of data and intelligence in developing sustainable and inclusive tourism in the GMS.

The expected outputs of the workshop include a raised awareness and shared understanding of the importance of a uniformed system of tourism data collection and analysis that addresses sustainable development by incorporating environmental and socio dimensions.

As a tangible output that will progress the adoption and application of a more comprehensive and standardized system of tourism statistics the results of the closed-door workshop will be a set of agreed actions from all relevant and participating agencies.