Tuesday, 22 April 2008

Cambodia eyes lucrative European, Chinese tourist markets

www.chinaview.cn
2008-04-22

PHNOM PENH, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia will seek to increase direct flights from China and European Union (EU) nations to boostits booming tourism industry, the Mekong Times newspaper reported Tuesday.

"Cambodia needs more flights from the big cities in southern China and they need to be daily," Tourism Minister Thong Khon was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

The EU is also a market that is under-tapped due to a lack of direct flights, he said.

"At present we have direct charter flights from Finland and Italy, but we would like to see that grow as 60 percent of our tourist arrival by air," he added.

His comments came as Cambodia announced a 17 percent increase in tourist arrivals at about 400,000 during the first two months of 2008.

Cambodia's Siem Reap International Airport, the gateway to the Angkor Wat temple complex, currently accommodates 37 international flights per day, while the Phnom Penh International Airport handles about 30 international flights a day.

Editor: An Lu

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