PHNOM PENH, Apr 12, 2012 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Cambodia's Preah Vihear temple, one of the world heritage sites, had attracted some 23,070 local and foreign visitors in the first quarter this year, a 31 percent increase from the same period last year, according to the statistics from the Preah Vihear Provincial Tourism Department on Thursday.
Officials attributed the rise to eased Cambodia-Thailand border tension since the bloody clashes last year.
The statistics showed that, during the January-March period, the total visitors to the ruins included 21,000 domestic tourists and 2070 foreigners, up 29 percent and 61 percent over the same period last year, respectively.
"We observed that the Cambodian-Thai border situation has quite improved and no more military tensions, so tourists have begun visiting the temple," Kong Vibol, chief of Preah Vihear Provincial Tourism Department, told Xinhua Thursday over telephone.
He recalled that during the first quarter last year, few visitors were seen to the ruins due to deadly clashes between the two neighboring countries.
"As the border tension is calm, now we are trying to promote the temple's potential and other cultural museum and tourism sites near the temple in order to attract more visitors," he said. "We expect that, in the future, the temple will become the country's second largest tourism destination after Angkor Wat temples." Cambodia and Thailand have border conflicts just a week after the UNESCO approved Cambodia's bid to have the Preah Vihear temple named a World Heritage Site on July 07, 2008 and witnessed fierce clashes in February and April 2011.
The International Court of Justice awarded the cliff-top situated Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia on June 15, 1962, but Thailand claims the ownership of 4.6 square kilometers (1.8 square miles) of scrub next to the temple.
On April 28, 2011, Cambodia submitted a request to the ICJ for interpretation of its judgment in 1962 in the case concerning the ancient temple. It was accompanied by an urgent request for provisional measures in which Cambodia demands that Thailand immediately and unconditionally withdraw troops from the area surrounding the ruins.
During the interval of waiting for the verdict interpretation, the ICJ ordered Cambodia and Thailand on July 18, 2011 to immediately withdraw their military personnel from the Provisional Demilitarized Zone (PDZ) of about 17 kilometers on the disputed border near Preah Vihear temple and allow ASEAN observers access to the PDZ to monitor ceasefire.
However, so far, neither Cambodia nor Thailand has withdrawn its troops from the PDZ.
No comments:
Post a Comment