PHNOM PENH, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Thai Ambassador to Cambodia Sompong Sanguanbun on Tuesday pledged to encourage more Thai people to visit Cambodia in a bid to restore tourism cooperation between the two neighboring nations.
“In the competence as the new Thai diplomat to Cambodia, I’ll try all my best to boost bilateral cooperation in all sectors including tourism,” he said during a meeting with Cambodian Minister of Tourism Thong Khon on Tuesday afternoon.
Thai tourists to Cambodia have constantly declined since the two neighbors have border dispute since July 2008 when Cambodia’s Preah Vihear temple was enlisted by UNESCO as a World Heritage site, but Thailand claims the ownership of 4.6 square kilometers (1.8 square miles) of scrub next to the temple.
Since then, both sides have built up military forces along the border and periodic clashes have happened, resulting in the deaths of troops and civilians on both sides.
However, the border tension between the two countries has been eased since the former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai Party won a landslide victory in the July 3’s general elections.
Meanwhile, Thong Khon congratulated Thailand for the establishment of a new government led by Pheu Thai Party.
“With the new Thai government led by newly elected Prime Minister Yinluck Shinawatra, I believe that the number of Thai tourists to Cambodia will start to increase again from now on,” he said.
The latest e statistics of Tourism showed that Thai tourists to Cambodia had declined up to 36 percent to 48,136 in the first six months of this year, compared with the same period last year of 75,695.
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