• Society

Siem Reap-Seoul Direct Flights to Bring More Korean Tourists

• By Isa Rohany
• October 2, 2023 12:03 PM

SIEM REAP – Sky Angkor Airlines has announced it will open a direct line from Siem Reap to South Korea at the end of the year, in a move to attract more Korean tourists to Cambodia.

Direct flights to Seoul’s Incheon International Airport will commence in December 2023.

The announcement brought joy to tourist operators in the province, which is home to the world’s famous Angkor Archaeological Park, as the hospitality industry has heavily suffered from COVID-19.

Despite the borders being fully open for more than a year, visitors are still not back to pre-pandemic levels. According to Angkor Enterprise, which runs the park ticketing, a total of 556,879 international visitors have purchased a pass to visit the temples from Jan. 1 to Oct. 2, 2023. They were 1,662,513 in the same period in 2019, before the pandemic started.

Kim Bunthan, a tourist transport service provider, expressed pleasure at the news of a new itinerary directly connecting Siem Reap to South Korea. He expects large numbers of Korean tourists to come visit Angkor after the launch.

Siem Reap Deputy Governor Yun Linne said that this is good news for the province as it will reduce travel costs for tourists while saving them time. He hopes that the number of tourists will increase.

Citing information he received, the official said that European tourists will visit the Siem Reap province from October onwards as many hotels have already received bookings for that period.

Flights from Incheon will land at Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport, the brand-new international airport developed by the Chinese company Angkor International Airport Investment (AIAI).

The new facility is larger than the existing one and will start operations on Oct. 16. The current Siem Reap airport, which is run by the French-Malaysian conglomerate Cambodia Airports, will completely close on Oct. 15 at midnight.

Tourism Ministry’s Undersecretary of State Mohammat Younes said that developing new direct destinations is important for Siem Reap province.

The new airport’s runway, which is longer than the existing one, will offer more opportunities for direct flights from all over the world.

“It will provide more convenience and affordable prices for Korean tourists to visit Siem Reap, which has a positive impact on the local economy and promotes cultural exchanges between Korea and Cambodia,” said Younes.

Originally written in Khmer for ThmeyThmey, the article was translated by Nhor Sokhoeurn for Cambodianess.