Tourims Indochina: World Tourism News: US eases airport screening for elderly travellers

US eases airport screening for elderly travellers

WASHINGTON: The US government is easing the airport screening process for travellers 75 and older, beginning to roll out new rules just in time for the long Memorial Day holiday weekend, an official said Friday.

From this weekend the elderly will no longer have to doff shoes, belts and jackets as they pass through security checkpoints at New York's three major airports: John F. Kennedy International, La Guardia, and Newark Liberty.

The Transportation Security Administration has said rollout of the new measures to the rest of the country could follow.

"Seventy-five-plus is in the process of being rolled out and customers will see it over the course of the summer and beyond," said David Castelveter, chief spokesman of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

Castelveter said he did not have a precise timetable, but the New York rollout was expected to occur through the upcoming three-day weekend that unofficially kicks off the US summer vacation season.

The 75-plus measures have already been successfully tested in the Chicago, Denver, Orlando and Portland airports.

Last September, the TSA decided to allow children 12 and under to pass through screening without removing their shoes.

The enhanced TSA airport screening was established after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States in which the attackers used airplanes as weapons.

The Al-Qaeda attacks claimed 2,976 lives in New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

- AFP/fa

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Tourism Indochina: Cambodia wants Kuwait tourists

Cambodia wants Kuwait tourists

Tourism officials in the Kingdom have suggested that the Kuwaiti ambassador should push for direct flights between Cambodia and Kuwait, and invited Kuwaitis to invest in Cambodia’s soaring tourism sector.

Thong Khon, Minister of Tourism, said he had told the Kuwait ambassador during their first meeting in Phnom Penh that Cambodia’s tourism sector has experienced significant growth over the last few years, but this sector still lacked infrastructure such as accommodation.

He said: “We need more and more investment in the tourism sector,” adding that the Cambodian coast became a considerably more attractive site for tourism after the coast became a full member of the World’s Most Beautiful Bays club.

He said that despite that, provinces along the coastal still lack accommodation.

“More opportunity will come, so we need more investment for this sector,” he added.

Kuwait ambassador Dheara Naser Al-Tuwaijri said he visited the minister to seek the opportunity to implement a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2009. Source: PPPost

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Tourism Indochina: Bokor resort slated to bolster Kampot tourism

Bokor resort slated to bolster Kampot tourism

Kampot officials are looking to the Bokor Mountain Resort, a US$1 billion project that opens today, to drive tourism growth in the burgeoning seaside destination.

The provincial Tourism Department said the number of domestic visitors to Kampot had risen 120 per cent to 338,000 in the first four months of this year, but the local government expects that figure to increase significantly now the casino complex is operating.

“I think that after the official opening, it will be a top tourism attraction,” Kampot Tourism Department director Soy Sinol said yesterday.

Kampot governor Khoy Khun Huor echoed those sentiments, claiming the resort’s soft launch in late March had been well received and numbers would continue to rise.

“Before [today] we just opened for occasional ceremonies, and there were a considerable numbers of guests,” Khoy Khun Huor said.

“So now that we’re open regularly, we expect those numbers will continue to rise.”

The resort would also create much-needed jobs in the province, Khoy Khun Huor added.

In January, 2008, the government granted the Sokha Hotel Group, owned by Sokimex Investment Group, a 99-year lease for the US$1 billion development, the Post reported in March.

As well as the casino, the project will include a 700-room, 18-storey, five-star hotel, along with conference rooms, bars, wedding facilities and two Arnold Palmer-designed golf courses.

Hundreds of houses and villas were expected to dot the mountain by the time the project was completed in about 15 years, the Post reported at the time.

Vietnamese-owned BIDC provided financing for the hotel, as well as for Sokha’s Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville projects.

Thansur Bokor Highland Resort chief executive Dr Ngin Banal said yesterday that so far, Cambodian tourists had outnumbered foreign visitors to the mountain getaway. He assumed that trend would continue going forward.

“For the future market, local guests will lead the numbers compared with international guests,” Ngin Banal said.

In March, he told the Post the resort’s primary target was the greater Mekong region, including Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand, with southern China and Korea serving as secondary markets.

The number of international visitors to Kampot jumped 29 per cent year-on-year in the first four months of 2012 to 9,000 from 7,000 the year before, statistics show. Source: PPPost

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Tourism Indochina: Cambodia aims to net a million Chinese tourists by 2020

Cambodia aims to net a million Chinese tourists by 2020

Cambodia is aiming for a four-fold increase in the number of Chinese tourists it attracts to the country by 2020, an official said at an ASEAN seminar for tourism.

The government expects 600,000 Chinese nationals to visit every year by 2015 and over 1 million by 2020, So Visothy, director of the marketing and promotion department at the Ministry of Tourism, said on Tuesday.

The Kingdom now attracts a quarter of a million Chinese visitors annually.

As part of the strategy, the government has pledged to encourage more direct flights and to invest in the promotion of the Chinese language.

So Visothy also promised more advertising for Cambodia under the theme “Kingdom of Wonder” in China and on the internet.

“We see China as the priority market,” he said. “China is very big, has a vast population and their economy is good.”

He added that the close relationship between the two governments made cooperation easy.

Matt Thompson, project director at the China Outbound Travel and Tourism Market, said that the expected jump in Chinese travellers in less than 10 years is achievable, but there is work to be done.

“Chinese travellers often expect to find on holiday the sort of services they can find at home. This includes Chinese speaking staff, Chinese breakfasts, newspapers, TV, even hotel rooms featuring lucky number eight and not unlucky number four,” he said. Source: PPPost

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