Minister of Tourism has ordered a joint special meeting to find way to enable tourists with cruise ships docked at Preah Sihanouk province’s port to visit especially Angkor Archaeological Park in Siem Reap province.
The minister, H.E. Thong Khon tasked assignment during yesterday’s meeting of the ministry at its office here in Phnom Penh.
The decision for a joint meeting with all concerned stakeholders including the private counterparts followed an analysis that the number of visitors via tourist cruise ships docked at Preah Sihanouk port is rising remarkably and many of them are interested in visiting the ancient temples at Siem Reap as well as different islands of Cambodia.
Unfortunately, as shared by Director General of Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (SAP) H.E. Lou Kim Chhun, the cruise ships docked at the port for an average of about 15 hours – which is not enough for the visitors to fly to Siem Reap and return to the ship on time.
H.E. Thong Khon saw the lost opportunity and proposed a systematic solution through discussions with all concerned players.
Records from the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port indicates that for the first four months of 2019, it received 30 tourist cruise ships carrying 29,111 visitors, suggesting an increase of nearly 58 percent and about 78 percent respectively compared to the same period last year.
In 2018, 37 tourist cruise ships (about 23 percent up) along with 40,598 visitors (almost 59 percent up) in total docked at the port, while it received 30 of such ships loaded with 25,538 tourists in 2017.
Source: Agency Kampuchea Press