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Post Info TOPIC: 2.15 million visit Cambodia, 1.8 million visit Laos !
samakomlao


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2.15 million visit Cambodia, 1.8 million visit Laos !
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PHNOM PENH - TOURIST arrivals in Cambodia were up eight per cent in 2008, half the expected growth as Thailand's airport closures and the global credit crunch took their toll, the tourism minister said Sunday.

In the first half of last year arrivals soared 13 per cent, and the Ministry of Tourism projected that growth over the year would top 15 per cent.

But Cambodia felt the pinch in the last half of 2008 from the world financial crisis, while protests shuttered Bangkok's two main airports in late November, closing a major transit hub to Cambodia for over a week.

'We expected foreign tourist arrivals to increase between 15 to 20 per cent, but it increased only about eight percent compared to 2007,' Tourism Minister Thong Khon told AFP.

'It only slightly increased because of the financial crisis ... people stop spending much money like before ... and (because of) the instability in Thailand, which is one of the two important gateways,' he said.

Thong Khon said about 31 percent of tourists enter Cambodia via Thailand.

Many holiday-makers also transit through Vietnam.

Altogether, 2.15 million people visited the impoverished kingdom in 2008, up from about two million in 2007. Arrivals then had jumped 20 per cent from 2006.

'I guarantee that the number of the tourist arrivals will increase next year, though not by too much,' Mr Thong Khon said.

Tourism remains one of the few sources of foreign exchange for Cambodia, where millions live in poverty after decades of civil strife.

The Angkor temples in northwestern Siem Reap province are the main draw, but the government has been developing a number of other tourism initiatives as part of a broader plan to keep foreigners in Cambodia longer. -- AFP


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tinko


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when ppl are able to fly out from VTE to japan or europe, usa, australia....etc.
more traffic will flow through laos.

right now foreigners who come to laos have to go back or fly back to
where they come from, an extra expense, before they can go home.

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TSP


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Yes, no surprise Cambodia is a well known country to people around the world if compared to Laos. But having said that, I guess, probably in 5-10 years they will know Laos well no less than Cambodia provided that Laos tries to improve tourism environment. 

No deny that in our country there are lots of things need to be improved up to good tourism environment standards.

People would want to come to visit the place if they can enjoy  their life, but not get bored or get a trouble.   


   

-- Edited by TSP at 05:20, 2009-01-06

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tinko


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a flood of foreigners can leave much trash and pollution.

a manageable and steady growth of tourism may be best,
as it gives you time to accommodate the environmental concerns and
other growing pain.


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tinko


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tourism money is good.

however, laos is not an amusement park type of place and
if foreigners have a superficial image of laos, they may treat the people with less respect.

creating a deep sense of relationship with those who visit laos is desirable.
i rather have 10 such visitors than a 100 disrepectful foreigners in laos bec
in the long term, the image and culture of laos are worth much more, yes?

-- Edited by tinko at 05:57, 2009-01-06

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khonthakek


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The Angkor temples is one of world's top wonders

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TSP


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FYI:

Singapore is a small country. Its population is just about 4 million. Number of people visited Singapore every year is more than 10 million, but Singapore is still clean and beautiful.




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fourpaws


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Does that figure for Cambodia include all the Thai gamblers who cross over to the casinos in Ko Khong, etc?

TSP:
That's because Singapore is a cleanED country, ever notice the army of sweepers & cleaners working on the streets even at night & before dawn? & tourists have heard a lot about Singapore's reputation as a FINE country.

Don't know how long it'll take to significantly reduce the habit of littering in Laos, everything flies out of the bus windows including plastic bags of vomit...

Most of that 10 million only stays for 1-2 days or less, while on their way to other countries in the region. But most tourists to Laos probably stay for up to a week or even longer in order to explore a much larger country.

Can't imagine 10 million tourists per year pouring into a place like Luang Prabang...might never reach that figure anyway since many might choose to avoid the place totally if the peaceful atmosphere is destroyed by the crowds & noise (might as well visit Bangkok, Hong Kong or Singapore if you want to enjoy crowds).



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TSP


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fourpaws wrote:


Don't know how long it'll take to significantly reduce the habit of littering in Laos, everything flies out of the bus windows including plastic bags of vomit...

Yes, I do agree with you in terms of our people habit. It is really hard work, indeed. Nobody can tell how long, though. But having said that, Lao authority should not give up about having a cleaned city.

One should not target whole country in the short time, just start from one village or one district first. The matter is not just to clean the village, the district, but all people in that village or district need to be educated of behaving like people in developped country.
 
After some decades propbably this a good habit would spread through out our country, no doubt. 


            


-- Edited by TSP at 11:32, 2009-01-06

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khonthakek


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Tourisms not reach the target in 2008 ( not reach 1.8 million tourisms) according to some crazy sources, do you believe?

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SeeHarHed


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khonthakek wrote:

Tourisms not reach the target in 2008 ( not reach 1.8 million tourisms) according to some crazy sources, do you believe?


Khonthakek,

That number might be true.  The economy around the globe isn't so good last year.   Most people stay close to home for their vacation.  Hopefully, they will make up for it this year.

 



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Ake


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Ofcos b'cos of Cambodia closed to the sea but Lao only river and mountains. They have 7 wonders of the world like Angkor Wat but their grande palace and temples look alike to Thailand's temples so most of the tourist they already saw it in Thailand so only things that they go to see is the Angkor Wat.

So if Angkor Wat is the only key for them... Do you think if youy went there and saw Angkor Wat once...you think will you go back to see it again?

The answer is "NO"

How about Laos? If we only selling of cultural heritage and national park. How many percentage of the tourrists will come back or re-visiting of 2nd,3rd or whatever..? I think they only come once and no return.

Why?

Look at Thailand... there has very beautiful beaches, shopping malls till street wanders, Pubs, Bars, A-go-go and all kinds of entertainment activities so made many tourists revisit again and again. They created their own country brand till well known about the globe and every people knew where is Thailand. There have the places for luxuly toursits till backpackers but in Laos only for backpackers which they spend only little money in our country


I said..I didn't means to jealous of them but the thisngs you've seen you knew it right?

How many people in this world know where is Laos?

How you gonna explain to these people who don't know where is Laos?

Will you say we are located in he south of China or will you gonna say we are located next to Thailand?

-- Edited by Ake at 16:21, 2009-01-18

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