Day trip worries over road link

21 Jan 2015  2050 | Cambodia Travel News

PHNOM PENH  Thailand’s plan to launch a new bus service to Siem Reap from Si Sa Ket province using a new road that will shorten the distance to the border has already upset one leading light in Cambodia’s tourism industry.
Criticism focused on fears that tourists would embark on a roundtrip to Siem Reap, visit Angkor Wat and return to Northeast Thailand in just a day. Quite a trip.
Thailand’s Ministry of Transport is building a 7.5-km road located in Phu Sing district of Si Sa Ket province that will connect with a road at the border crossing linking to the main highway to Siem Reap in Cambodia.
The district’s Chong Sa-ngam border crossing gives access to Highway 67 (Chong Sa-ngam-Anlong Veng-Siem Reap) leading to Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat Historical Park a distance of 135 km.
inside no 4Construction of the strategic road in Thailand started 10 June last year and should be ready by November this year.
The ministry also plans to open a bus service linking Bangkok to Si Sa Ket and Siem Reap.
The Phnom Penh Post quoted Cambodian Association of Travel Agents president, Ang Kim Eang, as saying that the new road will boost tourism to Thailand’s northeast provinces because travellers could then travel to Siem Reap by a much shorter route, around 135 km from the Thai-Cambodian border.
“Their strategy is to link their ancient temple sites in the northeastern part of Thailand to Siem Reap province in Cambodia,” the president commented.
“By doing this, they can offer one-day visits to Cambodia’s ancient temples from Northeast Thailand and encourage longer tourist stays within their own country, not ours.”
While Northeast Thailand’s tourism would benefit from having a shorter route to Siem Reap, his argument that tourists could complete the roundtrip in a day and tour Angkor Wat is logistically impossible. It would take almost all day to reach Siem Reap from Si-Sa-Ket town. Border crossing are only open during daylight making it possible to get back to the border checkpoint before 1800. There would not be enough time left to visit Angkor Wat even if tourists reached Siem Reap by mid-morning. It would make for a most unsatisfactory trip of little or no value to the traveller.
Siem Reap’s Tourism Department deputy director, Chheuy Chhorn, argued that improved roads would encourage more international visitors to visit Northeast Thailand first and then take the shortest route to Cambodia’s Siem Reap.
“Usually Thai tourists cross borders to gamble at our casinos, but with the new road and bus line, we will see more foreign tourists coming through these border points from Si Sa Ket and then on to Siem Reap.”
Currently, Transport Co Ltd operates services crossing the border between the Thai town of Aranyaprathet and Poipet in Cambodia, the bus operates twice daily to Siem Reap and daily to Phnom Penh.

sourced:ttrweekly.com 

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