Vietnam, Cambodia tourism totals boosted by Siem Reap service HANOI - Since Vietnam Airlines opened a new service from Ho Chi Minh City to Siem Reap, the location of Cambodia's well-known Angkor Wat temples, last month the number of foreign tourists, especially Taiwanese and Japanese, coming to Viet Nam and Cambodia has kept rising. The airlines runs a return flight between Ho Chi Minh City and Seam Reap each day, except Tuesday and Friday. The occupancy rate has over the past three weeks stood at some 65 per cent and the airlines hopes to expand the service to meet the growing demand. This is the second service to Cambodia launched by Vietnam Airlines. The Ho Chi Minh City -Phnom Penh service is operating with 18 flights a week. "The new service will bring more tourists not only to Cambodia's Angkor temples, but also to Ho Chi Minh City and Viet Nam in general," said Vo Thi Thang, head of Viet Nam Tourism Administration (VTA), during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Siem Reap Airport in mid-January. The number of foreign passengers flying with Vietnam Airlines from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh has risen by 30 per cent from 55,200 in 1998 to 72,000 last year. Meanwhile, the number of tourist arrivals in Cambodia increased by 14 percent, from 190,000 in 1998 to 217,000 in 1999, according to statistics released by Vietnam Airlines' Service Planning Department. More than 268,400 foreign tourists are expected to visit Cambodia in the year 2000. The Ho Chi Minh City -Siem Reap line will support long-distance air routes such as those linking Viet Nam to European and northeast Asian destinations. Daily flights between Ho Chi Minh City and Siem Reap are expected to be introduced by the middle of this month with the introduction of Vietnam Airlines summer schedule. These direct flights were made possible by the introduction of Cambodia's new "open sky" policy last December, which opened up Siem Reap Airport to international carriers. Sok Chenda, a senior Cambodian Government official, said all parts of Cambodia would benefit from the policy as the convenience of direct flights would bring more tourists, spurring up the country's fledgling but potential tourism industry. He added that Cambodia is expecting an annual 30 per cent increase in tourist arrivals in the next few years. Cambodia tourism authorities reported a total of 184,281 visitors flying to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in the first nine months of 1999, compared with 136,336 in the same period of 1998. Improvement works at Siem Reap Airport, which are scheduled to be completed by March, will allow it to handle larger aircraft used by many international carriers. Vietnam Airlines plans to bring Airbus A320 into operation on the route in mid-2000. Last year Vietnam Airlines carried 2,564,000 passengers including 990,000 foreign passengers, a year-on-year increase of 5 per cent or 3.5 per cent higher than its 1999 target. Vietnam News Agency - March 15, 2000.