59 casinos could entice Chinese travelers
Planned additional air service will allow more tourists to fly between the kingdom of Cambodia and the city of Macau, according to CalvinAyre.com.
Cambodian Tourism Minister Thong Kong told the Phnom Penh Post Macau officials have OK’d the proposal, but they want “to start first with more charter flights or state-subsidized scheduled service to ensure the connectivity is there.”
At present, the only direct flights between Phnom Penh and Macau are charter flights run by Bassaka Air, a joint venture between NagaCorp and state-owned China International Travel Services. “We plan to ask permission to have three charter flights per week. We want to have one flight daily to Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Sihanoukville respectively,” said Bassaka’s Macau representative Ng Tong Mio.
Cambodia, which has 59 casinos, hope to draw 700,000 Chinese visitors this year, and up to 2 million visitors a year by 2020. “We cannot say that these tourists come to Cambodia only to gamble in our casinos,” Kong said. “Not all Chinese come to Cambodia for gambling.”
