Tourism Indochina: Preah Vihear on the tourist trail

Preah Vihear on the tourist trail

The number of international tourists visiting Preah Vihear temple increased more than 166 per cent in the first four months of this year compared to the same time last year, tourism officials said yesterday.

Combat between Cambodia and Thailand over an area near the temple discouraged tourism in the region early last year.

Kong Vibol, Preah Vihear province’s tourism department director, said the number of foreign tourists increased from 950 in the first four months of last year compared to 2,527 this year.

“Most of [the] tourists come from Asia, and they go there by driving [their own vehicles], but there are not so many tourists [who] went there [in] groups,” said Kong Vibol.

The number of Cambodians visiting the temple increased more than 49 per cent between January and April. “We see more and more visitors at the temple because there were not many last year due to the clash in February,” Kong Vibol said.

Kong said he expects the number of tourists to decrease in the coming months because of the rainy season.

According to Ho Vandy, co-chair of the government-private sector working group on tourism, said visiting the site of Thai-Cambodian border clashes was a main reason for visiting the temple. More tourists are also arriving due to better roads and other infrastructure in the region, he said.

The last stronghold of the Khmer Rouge, Anlong Veng, has also become a popular destination.

“The private sector is trying to promote the temple with tourist packages. There wasn’t any interest but now things are starting to change,” he added.

Source: PPPost/18May2012

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Tourism Indochina: Phnom Penh, new destination

Phnom Penh, new destination

Starting 27 March 2011, Air France will begin operating a new service between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital. Flight bookings and ticket sales are now open.

The three weekly flights between Paris and Phnom Penh, with a stopover in Bangkok, will be operated by Airbus A340-300 equipped with 275 seats (30 in Business, 21 in Premium Voyageur and 224 in Voyageur-Economy), and subsequently during summer 2011 by Boeing 777-200ER equipped with 309 seats (35 in Business, 24 in Premium Voyageur and 250 in Voyageur-Economy).

Flight schedules between Paris and Phnom Penh

Paris-CDG / Phnom Penh
AF 274, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
Departing at 19:30, and arriving in Bangkok at 11:50, the following day,
Departing for Phnom Penh the same day at 13:20, arriving at 14.35
Phnom Penh / Paris-CDG
AF 273, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays
Departing at 20:15, and arriving in Bangkok at 21:30
Departing for Paris the same day at 22:55, and arriving at 06:10, the following day.

Flight times allow customers to benefit from convenient connecting opportunities to and from destinations worldwide at Paris-Charles de Gaulle.


Source: Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia

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Tourism Indochina: Bicycle tours take people off the beaten path around Cambodia

Bicycle tours take people off the beaten path around Cambodia

Cycling is becoming increasingly popular in Cambodia, and bicycle tours are being seen as an active and exciting way for tourists to see the less noticed parts of the kingdom, said Adam Platt-Hepworth, the regional manager of Grasshopper Adventures, a bike tour company.

Grasshopper Adventures, at #23 on Street 144, runs regular tours in numerous Southeast Asian countries, and operates through other tour services in other nearby countries such as China, India and Malaysia.

The company was started four years ago and was run out of a house in Tuol Sleng. “At first it was really hard to get business because Cambodia was not known as a bike riding destination,” said Platt-Hepworth. “Our first real break came when we were mentioned in a Lonely Planet guide and a few in-flight magazines,” he said.

Now the company has two locations in Cambodia, in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, and runs one or two tours from Phnom Penh a day and two to three from Siem Reap, depending on the time of year. Most of their business comes from online bookings and is mostly Australian or western tourists, but is becoming popular among tourists from Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, he said.

The most popular trips are day trips to the Mekong islands, the Siem Reap countryside and a 16-day trip from Angkor Wat to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, which has a two day stopover on Phu Quoc Island.

The company has looked at expanding to other places across the Kingdom, and north-east Cambodia was considered, but the number of tourists was deemed to be too small, Platt-Hepworth said.

The company works with social development NGO SokSaBike, which operates bike tours in Battambang.

“They were using old classic-style bikes for the tours so we donated newer and better bikes to them because we wanted to support them,” he said. More details, please visit PhnomPenhPost.com

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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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