[PHNOM PENH POST]
The Kingdom needs US$270 million to expand its three airports if the
country is to meet its growing demand as a tourist destination, Cambodia
Airport CEO Emmanuel Menanteau said yesterday.
The total number
of visitors passing through the Kingdom’s airports will approximately
double every 10 years, reaching eight million in 2020 from about four
million today, then jumping to 16 million by 2030, he said.
The
money would be used to boost the overall capacity of Cambodia’s airports
– in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville – by the end of this
decade in order to better serve a still-burgeoning tourism industry,
according to Menanteau.
“We see the next 10 years as being very
important for the development of these airports,” he said during a
tourism conference held in Phnom Penh yesterday.
Cambodia
Airports, which operates the Kingdom’s airports, is 70 per cent owned by
France’s group VINCI and 30 per cent controlled by the
Malaysian-Cambodian joint venture Muhibbah Masteron, according to the
company’s website.
Menanteau said Phnom Penh International
Airport’s international terminal would be expanded to accommodate 4
million visitors by 2015.
Siem Reap International Airport will
build a new terminal next year with the expectation of serving 4 million
passengers by 2014. Preah Sihanouk International Airport aims to reach
the 4 million mark by 2020.
Ministry of Tourism director general
Tith Chantha said yesterday that airports alone account for 50 per cent
of tourist arrivals, and therefore the proposed improvements are crucial
to the Cambodian tourism industry.
“This important point in
these strategies is thinking about big infrastructure to ensure tourism
growth,” he said, pointing also to the importance of Phnom Penh to that
growth.
Tith Chantha said the Phnom Penh airport should be able
to handle 10 million passengers a year between 2020 and 2025, but at
present accommodates only 2 million. At the same time, Sihanoukville
airport’s domestic-only operations should eventually grow to include
regional flights, he said.
“It will help more development in the coastal region,” he said of the Sihanoukville airport.
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