Preah Vihear visits on the up
As tensions subside between Thailand and Cambodia over the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple, site officials are welcoming a steady increase of international tourists. At 5,240, foreign visits are up 56 per cent in the first six months of the year, compared to the same period in 2012, when 3,359 made the trip, according to statistics from Preah Vihear provincial tourism department.
Cambodians, however, are arriving in fewer numbers. In the same period last year, 56,781 came to the site, a figure that now stands at 36,340. …
The President of the Cambodia Association of Travel Agents, Ang Kim Eang, cites Cambodia’s chairmanship of ASEAN last year and the recent World Heritage Conference in Phnom Penh as opportunities to broaden Cambodia’s tourism base and present it as a cultural destination, while highlighting sites like Preah Vihear.
“Cambodia is now moving beyond an emerging destination; now we become a world cultural destination,” …http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013070366630/Business/preah-vihear-visits-on-the-up.html
