Leading Halal Tour Package and Travel Guide in Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, 15 February 2016: Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism will draft new policies that will encourage Chinese tourists to make the country their second home.
It will boost tourism revenue and length of stay of Chinese tourists.
Khmer Times quoted Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon saying the proposed ‘second-home policy’ could be a major factor to boost high-spend tourism from China.
The second-home policy would ensure Chinese tourists would have legal ownership rights to their second homes.
The legislation would allow them to have a 70% stake in a house and land. Under current law, foreigners can own 100% of an apartment unit as long as it is not on the ground floor.
It is not clear how the 70% ownership of a house would work out for tourists, who usually demand guarantees of ownership and the right to sell the property.
In Thailand, long-stay visitors are not allowed to own land. They can lease it for 30 years.
The tourism development committee and Ministry of Tourism is studying the second-home policy, comparing it with neighbouring countries before it submits the final draft the Council of Ministers, the report added.
Cambodia Chamber of Commerce advisor, Ho Vandy, told the Khmer Time that similar policies had been successful in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. It would tap to investor-tourists, families and retirees sectors.
However, that is not entirely true and there are many stories of grief that illustrate the pitfalls retirees and long-stay visitors meet when they invest in a second home in an ASEAN country.
The second home pilot schemes already exist in Cambodia’s Kampong Speu province’s Kirrom National Park, Kampot province’s Bokor Mountain and in the coastal resort of Sihanoukville, he said.
Ministry of Tourism estimated 4.8 million international tourists travelled to the country last year up 6.67% from 4.5 million visits in 2014. The country expects number of tourists would surge to 8 million by 2020. It has no data on long-stay or retiree visits.
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