Thursday, July 01, 2010

Cambodia eyes tourism sites in Preah Vihear Province

Cambodia saw 2,161,577 visitors in 2009, up 1.7 percent, while at the same time world tourism in general declined by 4.3 percent on average, and Asian tourism increased by only 0.9 percent.

PHNOM PENH, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has eyed temples and cultural sites in Preah Vihear Province as another potential tourism boost for the country.

Delivering a speech to the launch of students contests in Phnom Penh on Thursday, Sok An, deputy prime minister and minister in charge of the Office of the Council of Ministers, said Preah Vihear Province, located about 500 kilometers north of Phnom Penh, is another potential tourism sites.

He said, in addition to Preah Vihear Temple, registered as World Heritage Site in 2008, there are about 200 more temples in the province, plus many other natural sites that include the special kind of birds.

He said giant ibis, a kind of rare bird, is currently near extinction with about 500 recorded worldwide, but in Cambodia alone there are about 200 and they are living in Preah Vihear province.

Sok An also said seeing the province as another tourist destination in the country, the government has spent nearly 100 million U.S. dollars to improve the infrastructure through the building and renovation of the roads and bridges linking from other neighboring provinces.


Civil war has left the province poor in infrastructure and many of the tourism sites there are not accessible.

For Preah Vihear Temple, Sok An said it now becomes one of the most attractive sites for both local and foreign tourists, adding that two days ago, about 200 visitors went to the Temple.

Tourism plays an increasingly important role in Cambodia's national, economical and social development.

It is the country's top priority to build and develop the necessary tourism infrastructure to help drive this industry forward.

Cambodia saw 2,161,577 visitors in 2009, up 1.7 percent, while at the same time world tourism in general declined by 4.3 percent on average, and Asian tourism increased by only 0.9 percent.

Cambodia is located in tropical region and is one of the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

yes, preah vihear province has a huge potential to attract tourists from all over the world as well as national tourists. i think it will be a wonderful idea to look into developing the preah vihear province in terms of putting in modern infrastructure roads, electricity, etc for the province. it is one of cambodia's provinces that have a huge potential to attract tourists, etc... remember isolation is what make the people poor there. yes, gov't should look into developing the province for tourists and so forth.

Anonymous said...

Preah Vihear tourism cannot be developed to its full potential unless we kick the siamese out of the area once and for all. Let's do it now by all means.

Anonymous said...

KICK AH KWACK OUT THAN SIAM WOULD NOT HAVE THAKSIN TO COMPLAINE ABOUT!

AH KWACK HUN XEN CAUSE TOO MUCH SUFFERING IN CAMBODIA!

Anonymous said...

11:46pm is right! as long as those Thai black soldier still sitting around on our lands, there's not much thing can be done..? cambodia should eyes tourism in Boeung Tonle Sap Lake too!...i don't see why not?

Anonymous said...

Get rid of all thai thief first!

Anonymous said...

Yes I want to see Mr. Sok An invsets more to build a Histiry U for the world nations including a history libery books during Khmer empire to describ each of Khmer Prasath throughout the empire available for the tourists who want to spend time reading while they have their precious moment to go up there, or willingly to study Prasath Preah Vihear's History and as well as the other, and then welcom Chulalongkon U Students in Siam from BeongKock(Bangkok, Siamese's word).

Anonymous said...

7:01





7:01AM kick ah kantop yuon first because they are all over in Cambodia and kick ah Akapik Siam . Go to hell two of them.Specially ah Hun Xen and his clans.










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