[PHNOM PENH POST]
Year-end travelers have fully booked Sihanoukville province’s hotels and
guesthouses for the first-ever Sea Festival, which is expected to
attract thousands of visitors this year, tourism officials said.
Tith
Chantha, general director at the Ministry of Tourism, confirmed that
all hotel and guesthouse rooms were booked for New Year’s, adding that
the Cambodian coast became more popular since joining the Most Beautiful
Bays of the World Club in May.
Kuy Sengteang, a receptionist at
the Holiday Palace Hotel in the province, said that the hotel’s 81
rooms had been fully booked for about three weeks.
“This year, many [people] called to book the rooms, but our hotel doesn’t have available rooms,” she said.
The Makara and Orchidee Guest Houses in Sihanoukville also reported full capacity from December 24 until January 4.
Seng
Kha, deputy director of Sihanoukville province’s Tourism Department,
said that of the 4,000 hotel and guesthouse rooms in Preah Sihanouk
province, around 1,700 rooms belong to guesthouses and more than 2,000
to hotels.
“I think these numbers cannot accommodate all
visitors,” he said. However, while hotels are booked, he said some
small guesthouses in rural areas may still have rooms available.
“We can not assume that all rooms are booked because we also have a lot of hotels and guesthouses in [rural areas],” he said.
The
Ministry of Tourism organised the Sea Festival, which starts on
December 31, to celebrate Cambodia’s acceptance into the Most Beautiful
Bays of the World Club.
Angkor Wat has also seen high tourist
numbers as 2011 draws to a close. The number of foreign tourists who
visited the park rose by more than 20 per cent through November,
according to official figures from the Apsara Authority, the state
institution that manages the park.
Ngov Seng Hak, director of
Siem Reap province’s Tourism Department, estimates that total numbers
may reach 1.5 million foreign visitors by the end of the year.
Ninety-five per cent of international tourists who come to Siem Riep do so to visit the temple complex, he said.
He
added that with the sharp growth of tourists, however, the province
still lacked services for Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese tourists. Of
the 3,400 tourist guides in the country, only 50 speak Vietnamese, he
said.
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