Likewise, both nations agreed to “make things easier” for arrivals from a third country, as permitted by current Covid-19 health and safety regulations, the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism said in a press release on May 24.
Although the quay’s construction was scheduled to be completed in end-2021, a date that was subsequently pushed back to March 30, the project continues to be beset with delays. Sivlin believes Cambodian and Vietnamese efforts to encourage international flights would result in a meaningful increase in number of tourists to both countries, among other benefits. “Vietnam is a big market for Cambodia, and travel [between the two] is quite easy, be it by air, waterways or land,” she said.
Because of its small size, the Cambodian commercial aviation sector relies heavily on the Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Hong Kong and Singaporean markets, he added. “We have yet to become a regional tourism hub, and thus leaning on our neighbouring countries has become crucial.” For reference, the number of international visitors to Cambodia totalled 159,546 in the first quarter of this year, marking a 125 per cent increase from the corresponding period in 2021. More than half of all visitors entered the Kingdom by air, according to the tourism ministry.