Kimsa Sok Becomes a Tour Guide to Promote National Tourism

Phnom Penh:

According to the young tour guide, Kimsa Sok says, "Learning tourism skills is not because of love, but because I want to be a part of promoting natural and historical tourist destinations to provide employment opportunities for people in the area. Those tours."

Kimsa Sok, an 18-year-old student of Tourism and Hospitality Management at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Institute of Foreign Languages (IFL) and Phnom Penh Tourist Guide in English, is keen to promote tourism in Cambodia. Impressive by the masses of all classes.

The student revealed that the skills as a tour guide are a good profession that he considers a professional that can help spread the culture, customs, traditions, daily activities of people in different parts of Cambodia.

The student revealed that the skills as a tour guide are a good profession that he considers a professional that can help spread the culture, customs, traditions, daily activities of people in different parts of Cambodia.

He said the career was a dream come true since he was young. He said he knew in a historical area during the Udong period called: "Khleang Sbek Village" as a child, he saw many cruise ships docked in his village at that time, many international tourists, especially locals. British and Australian people came to study the life history of the villagers and learn about the handicrafts of the villagers who were making cotton hats at that time.

"These are the factors that motivate him to fall in love," he said, want to know, and want to start a career as a tour guide from a young age.

He added that he loves this profession because first, it can help promote the tourist area, both natural and historical, as show the traditions, culture, daily life of the people. Second, it can create new relationships with people from all over. Third, he can get a lot of good new experiences from people around him.

As a young tour guide, Kimsa also encountered some difficulties, in some are difficulties in researching the history of new knowledge, like strengthening of additional knowledge and skills, and the search for new local attractions and experiences. At a young age, which is why he still has many shortcomings in this career.

Kimsa Sok explained that before becoming a tour guide, he also worked as a service worker in a hotel in Kampong Thom province. For more than two years, he also attended a six-month tourism training course organized by the Ministry of Tourism, co-organized by the Mekong University of Cambodia, using four theoretical English courses. Another month and two months were spent on internships at the tour company after the training to strengthen the appropriate knowledge and theory.

Out of curiosity, after completing the training, the student usually continued his studies with a veteran tour guide with many years of experience before stepping into the current tour guide from 2020 until Today. So far.

Kimsa Sok added that he wants to promote local tourism to the masses, both local and foreign, to know the scope of the beautiful natural resources in Cambodia. In particular, we want to create job opportunities for the people in those tourist areas to have decent jobs and easy income from tourism, such as food, services, guides, transporters, which has facilitated the life of people in those areas. The proper occupation reduces illegal activities such as hunting and clearing forests.

Currently, as Cambodia is facing the crisis of COVID-19, the tourism sector has calmed down. However, he, the tour guide, is also affected by this problem. In addition, to his career as a tour guide, Mr. Kimsa Sok also organizes group tours at the resorts, which are rich in local attractions, to the beautiful tourist destinations in the provinces, such as camping or spinning in the evenings according to the wishes of the guests at affordable prices. Acceptable.

As a student in tourism and a tour guide, Kimsa is very proud to have achieved this goal, which has helped promote the scope of local tourism in Cambodia to become more famous. As well as contribute to the employment of citizens. In the tourist areas, although not bigs, it is also a part of the participation.

However, he also encouraged 12th-grade students to turn their attention to this tourism skill. And be a part of promoting tourism in Cambodia even better because the tourism sector needs experts and potential resources. In terms of promotion, tourism is an investment that does not grow and provides employment opportunities to promote the national economy.