Friday, 8 August 2008

Tourists Arrivals to Cambodia Soared 13 percent, but Thais Expected to Avoid the Country

Travel Blackboard
Thursday, August 07, 2008

Cambodian Ministry of Tourism statistics showed that nearly 1.1 million foreigners, including 67,502 from neighbouring Thailand, entered Cambodia in the first six months of 2008.

Tourism Minister Thong Khon has said that although tourist arrivals have risen 13 percent from the same period last year he expects a significant drop in Thai arrivals.

Thais are expected to avoid the kingdom as a territorial dispute on their joint border over land near the 11th century Preah Vihear temple drags on.

"We don't expect many more Thai tourists to come because they cannot go see the Preah Vihear temple," Thong Khon said.

Cambodia closed the border crossing from Thailand to Preah Vihear in late June.

Three Thai nationalists were arrested on July 15 after they tried to illegally cross into Cambodia to reach the temple, which was listed as a UN World Heritage Site last month.

The incident sparked a military stand-off which resulted in over 1,000 Thai and Cambodian soldiers being stationed on the disputed land near the ruin.

The tourism ministry did not say how many Thais entered Cambodia at the Preah Vihear crossing this year.

More than half of the country’s international visitors flocked to Cambodia's famed Angkor temples in northwestern Siem Reap province, the ministry said.

The World Heritage-listed ruins have been a vital key in reviving Cambodia's tourism sector since 2003, when a regional SARS panic and anti-Thai riots in the country's capital Phnom Penh made visitor figures plummet.

The Cambodian government has also begun planning a broader tourism plan to both keep foreigners in Cambodia longer, and develop some of the country's more impoverished areas.

The tourism sector remains one of the few sources of foreign exchange for Cambodia, were millions still live in poverty.

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