CAMBODIA hopes to have a cruise service with China to boost tourism between the two nations.
Its Tourism Ministry mooted the idea to Chinese investors during a visit to Hainan province, China, earlier this week.
Quoting a Facebook posting by the ministry, The Khmer Times said the ministry’s secretary of state Hun Dany suggested Chinese investors weigh up the idea.
He proposed a cruise tourism service from Hainan island province to Preah Sihanouk province, where cruise ships carrying tourists could dock for a short visit by passengers.
The posting also said that the cruise service was one of several tourism development ideas proposed by Cambodia.
This year has also been labelled The Year of Tourism by the Cambodian government.
Meanwhile, the ministry’s spokesman Top Sopheak said a cruise tourism service between China and Cambodia would be a good investment project that will promote the tourism sector in Cambodia to Chinese people.
“Cruise tourism is one of a number of tourism products that can boost the growth in foreign tourists visiting Cambodia,” he said.
“The proposed project is a strategy to have a maritime connection (in addition to one by air).”
Sopheak said the Sihanoukville deep seaport already had cruise ships docking there, carrying on board tourists from the United States, Canada and European Union countries.
He added that the ministry had worked with tour agencies to establish tour packages from Preah Sihanouk province to Siem Reap province.
The packages are aimed at providing options for foreign tourists to start a short cultural tour to Angkor Archaeological Park once they arrive in Cambodia by cruise ships.
Figures from the Tourism Ministry show that the number of Chinese tourists tops the country’s tourism market list.
For the first 10 months of last year, Cambodia received 5.2 million tourists from abroad, up 9.7 percent. Of that, Chinese tourists accounted for two million – a total of 38 per cent of all tourists.