Tourism

Construction began yesterday on the Sokha Hotel Group’s 600-room luxury resort in Siem Reap – right next door to Angkor Wat. Named the Sokha Siem Reap Resort, both company and government officials were out in force at yesterday’s groundbreaking ceremony, talking up the perks of the ...

Two teenagers and a couple in their twenties were injured in a roller coaster accident on Sunday at Chamkar Pring Amusement park in Sen Sok district, police said Monday. Keo Sothout, district police chief, said that a bolt on the ride came loose and sent two ...

The share price of Cambodian casino owner Entertainment Gaming Asia has fallen below the minimum requirement of the Nasdaq Stock Market, threatening the gaming company’s US listing, according to a statement posted on EGA’s website last week. EGA has been given 180 days – until October ...

UNESCO, the Battambang provicial government and tourism officials held talks yesterday on plans to list the province on the UN arm’s World Heritage Cities Program. As part of the first of several conferences on sustainable tourism for the conservation of cultural and natural heritage and the ...

Ancient ironwork at a site in Preah Vihear province that predates the civilisation of Angkor will fall within a new national park formed by royal decree last week. More than 200 pre-Angkor era industrial sites have been discovered since 2010, but the newly created national park ...

Dozens of houses have been marked for demolition near Phnom Penh International Airport as authorities say the families must be moved to bring the site in line with international standards. Civil aviation officials visited Chrey Chisark village in Por Sen Chey district’s Choam Choa commune with ...

Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple, a world heritage site, had attracted 778,740 foreign visitors in the first quarter of 2014, up 12 percent compared to the same period last year, official data showed Wednesday. The top five countries visiting the site are South Korea, China, Vietnam, Japan ...

Citi Research, the strategy and analysis arm of Citigroup Inc, one of the world’s largest financial firms, has questioned NagaCorp’s VIP junket program in a recent report that also cites cross-border competition and tourism failings as potential threats to the program’s success. Citi Research’s analysis was ...

The number of domestic and foreign tourists visiting historical sites and the Kingdom’s coastal areas increased sharply during this year’s three-day Khmer New Year, according to provincial tourism departments. Data from Siem Reap’s tourism department show 258,000 tourists visited the city of ancient temples, an increase ...

Cambodia earned $2.5 billion from the tourism sector last year, a senior government official said Monday. Last year’s income from tourism accounted for around 16 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product and provided jobs directly to about 400,000 people, Sok An said. The Cambodian government ...

A giant traditional sticky rice cake weighing two tons, the largest num ansorm ever made, was unveiled at the Angkor Wat temple complex in Siem Reap province yesterday as visitors flocked to the area to mark Khmer New Year. Visitor numbers for the three-day holiday ...

Laos plans to establish consulate general in Siem Reap province to boost bilateral cooperation with Cambodia through tourism and trade, a senior official from Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday. “Tourism from Laos is increasing annually, so Lao PDR will establish a general consulate based ...

Despite a noticeable increase in daily tourist arrivals in Preah Vihear province – home of the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple – overnight stays remain low, tourism officials and guesthouse owners say. Preah Vihear tourism department figures show that from January to March, foreign tourist arrivals reached ...

A new blueprint for the long-delayed Snake Island (Koh Pos) resort development off the coast of Sihanoukville will soon be completed, and investment of up to $1 billion is hoped to kick-start the project, which has a planned completion date of 2018, according to the ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday that the country wanted to see cooperation with Maldives in tourism and agriculture for the interests of the two countries and peoples. The premier made the remarks during a meeting with Maldives ex- President Mohamed Waheed Hassan at the ...

With Khmer New Year arriving next week, Prime Minister Hun Sen has warned tourism-related businesses against increasing service prices during the three-day holiday. Speaking at a graduation ceremony for students at Vanda Institute of Accounting in Koh Pich yesterday, the prime minister appealed to hotels, guesthouses, ...

In a rare moment of honesty a Cambodian official has admitted his doubts about his country’s ability to meet regional expectations in time for the launch of the much vaunted ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by the end of 2015. “If you talk about short-term: Yes, we ...

Siem Reap hotel operators are preparing for a deluge of tourists this Khmer New Year season the likes of which is not often seen, tourism officials say. Chheuy Chhorn, deputy director of Siem Reap’s tourism department, said after attracting 170,000 visitors to the first annual Angkor ...

The spectacular temples of Cambodia’s Angkor civilization have been incorporated into Google’s Street View, a boost to the impoverished country’s tourism industry that also adds urgency to efforts to preserve the sprawling historic site. The Internet giant said in a statement Thursday that Street View now ...

To attract tourism and make Battambang province more appealing as a nightlife destination, provincial authorities are preparing to follow the way of Siem Reap and lay the groundwork for a Pub Street ahead of the Khmer New Year. The deputy governor of Battambang, Ngon Ratthanak, says ...

A steep decline in the number of red-headed cranes, also known as Sarus cranes, has been recorded since early this year in southern Kien Giang province, the bird’s usual hot spot, compared to a sharp rise in a Cambodian sanctuary. Meanwhile, hundreds of them have ...

Minister of Environment Say Sam El urged economic land concessionaire Union Development Group (UDG) – the mega-resort developer at the centre of a long-running Koh Kong province land dispute – to provide sufficient infrastructure in the relocation areas provided for residents it displaced, a ministry ...

The director of the Lumphat district forestry department in Ratanakkiri province was charged and put in pre-trial detention on Monday for allegedly logging on protected land around Ou’Sinlair waterfall, police and court officials revealed yesterday. Deputy Police Chief Klol Thoeun said that Meung Bunthin was picked ...

After its November launch in Hong Kong, Alila Villas Koh Russey will break ground late next month, initiating the construction of a world-class luxury resort. Alila Villas occupies 25 hectares on Koh Russey, an island in the Koh Rong archipelago in the Gulf of Thailand, with ...