01/29/2010 - Grand Lion Group Enters Hotel Business
Cambodia-based Grand Lion Group, has entered into a management agreement and related agreements with Marriott International to operate the 218-room Courtyard by Marriott Siem Reap. The agreement is the first of its kind for the Grand Lion Group whose primary business is real estate and agriculture.
Scheduled for completion in 2011, the Courtyard by Marriott Siem Reap will be located on a 1.2-hectar site, approximately 15 minutes away from the UNESCO site of Angkor Park.
Plans are also underway to open a resort hotel in the premier coastal holiday town of Sihanoukville and a business hotel in the capital city of Phnom Penh. Expecting to breaking ground in the third quarter of 2010, the Grand Palm Resort will comprise three branded International Hotels, a marina, 18- hole championship golf course and luxury villas and condominiums situated on a 200 hectare beachfront in the premier coastal holiday town of Sihanoukville. The Grand Palms Beach Resort is nestled between a tropical rain forest and the Gulf of Thailand providing an idyllic retreat for those seeking seclusion. Sited four hours by road from Phnom Penh, the Resort is on target to be ready by 2013. he planned 200-room hotel in the capital city of Phnom Penh is expected to appeal to business and leisure travellers when it opens in 2013.
The Grand Lion Group will invest a total of US$300 million in its ongoing hotel ventures around Cambodia. The Grand Lion Group hospitality division is expected to create over 500 job opportunities in the country, and the group expects future development plans in Laos, Mongolia and Vietnam.

01/25/2010 - ASEAN Tourism plan's framework endorsed.
The framework for the five-year strategic plan, which aims to promote Southeast Asia as a one-stop tourism destination, has been endorsed by ministers and senior government officials from Asean member countries at the Asean Tourism Forum (ATF) Ministerial Meeting. This Asean Tourism Strategic Plan for 2011 to 2015 includes proposals to further improve connectivity and transportation to facilitate travel. The plan is scheduled to be launched in Cambodia during the next ATF meeting in 2011. "So today we went into the details... and the ministers have added four of the elements like for the facilitation of travel". "We have to work closely with the transportation sector, because we know that tourism and transport (go) together, for railway tourism, for the cruise tourism, for the road access and even the open-skies connectivity. So they suggested we have to work in an energetic way in transportation. This is the second item that we have endorsed and approved". The essence of the strategic plan is to look forward and cope with new and upcoming challenges. When the region's economies suffer a downturn, the plan is seen to help them recover. "Today, it was reported that (there was only) nearly one per cent decline for Asean as a whole. That is not bad at all. Other regions, they dipped a lot and some countries have not changed at all". "This is what we are working on ... as a single destination. A community looking to be proactive". There are different phases to the formulation of the plan. The challenges therefore for the organising team is to marry the 10 strategic directions into a common Asean tourism strategic plan". "We feel that it is really important that all the stakeholders, not just the NTOs, but the private sector and NGOs (non-government organisations) and other parts of civil society have a chance to let us know what they want out of tourism for their countries". After these checkpoints have been achieved, the plan would then have to wait for approval this November and ratification by the tourism ministers next January.

01/18/2010 - Building Cambodia's Roads.
The New York Times reported on Monday that since the end of the tumultuous civil war in Cambodia, the government has been working to rebuild and enhance the country's inadequate road system. This move will not only improve the quality of life for Cambodians, but will help to boost its tourism industry. The rise in road construction began last month with the inauguration of Routes 5 and 6, which connect the capital, Phnom Penh and the Thai border. "Now enjoying the dividends of peace, Cambodia is halfway through a road-building spree with 10 projects totally 1,173 kilometers, or 730 miles, of pavement still under way, said Prime Minister Hun Sen..." the Times reported. The system of roads will help bring together popular destinations, such as Angkor Wat, and other historic sites, which were once more difficult to get to. Travel throughout the country will be much easier, as well.

13/09/2007 - The Minister of Tourism announced this Thursday 13 the reopening of a national airline company.
“The government submitted a project to launch a new airline company, in the nearest future. We must negotiate with our “partners”, announced Thong Khon, Minister of Tourism. He thus hopes to instigate the tourism sector. “The first international destinations concerned will be Japan and Korea”, adds the minister. These are the two countries with the most visitors to our kingdom. In early September, during the forum held in Phnom Penh by private investors, the Prime Minister Hun SEN had encouraged this project to start as soon as possible. “We did not receive yet precise information about this project”, acknowledges Mao Hasvanal, Secretary of State for the Civil aviation. Moeung Sonn CEO of Eurasia Travel, thinks that the new national company will increase considerably the growth of tourism in Cambodia. The number of visitors increased at the rate of 20%, over the last two years. In 2006, the kingdom recorded more than 1,7 million tourists, whose majority landed in Siem Reap. The country airway sector is still slightly developed. Only three airports accommodate international passengers regularly. Among the sixteen recorded local airline companies, only a few fly in/out effectively. However, the tourist sector remains the second economic income in Cambodia, with 1,04 billion dollars, after the textile sector, which represents 2,6 billion dollars in exports, last year.

09/05/2007 - Cambodia hopes to launch a national airline company soon, to comply with the everyday increase of tourists , announced the Prime Minister Hun SEN, Tuesday.
Currently, ten foreign companies handle domestic and international flights thorough Cambodia and share this lucrative market. According to the Prime Minister, the negotiations to create a national airline company are splited between Phnom Penh and several foreign companies. Some 1,7 million tourists visited Cambodia in 2006, a number which should be exceeded this year, according to official sources'. The presence of a national company should support the tourist development of the country and encourage the tourists to stay longer in Cambodia, in particular thanks to the addition of domestic commuter lines, according to the same sources'.

08/29/2007 - Tourism - Regional Cooperation for the coastal development.
The Tourism Comity of Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam met last week in Sihanoukville to discuss the development of the Tri Country Coasts. The Minister for Tourism, Thong Khon, declared that measures have been taken, to collaborate with the tourist authorities of the participating countries. A second meeting is set in Thailand in 2008.

08/29/2007 - Tourism – Campaign against human traffic.
The Ministry for Tourism announced the launching of a series of initiatives aiming to promote “clean, save tourism”, and to reinforce the actions of fight against the traffic of women and children. Among these initiatives, the publication of an action plan bound for the various authorities and of an instruction manual should help the Tourism Comity to coordinate their actions. It is in particular expected Hotel, guesthouse Managers and other tourist establishments are working together with the police force to inform of any suspect situation. This Campaign has been supported by the technical and financial support of the International Labor Organization. Philip Setkao, president of the National Hotel Association, and General Manager of the Hotel Borei Angkor in Siem Reap, expressed his support for the initiative to the ministry, saying: “It is well to let know that (sexual tourism or pedophiles) is not the kind of business that our country wishes ".

08/06/2007 - The number of visitors to the Angkor Archeological Park increases.
The sales tickets revenue to the Angkor Park has increase 30% for the first half of the year, while foreign visitors gained 20%. As per the General Manager Bun Narith from Apsara, the tickets sales reached approximately 16 millions USD, mainly tourists from China, Japan and Korea.

07/28/2007 - Bangkok Dusit Medical Services, the operator of the principal hospital of Bangkok, announced yesterday that it set up a diagnostic center in the Cambodian Capital Phnom Penh.
The center of Phnom Penh which is a joint venture with local investors is currently in construction and will start its operations at the beginning of 2008. Bangkok Dusit Medical Services is a quoted on the stock exchange holding company which manages 17 hospitals in Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket and Koh Samui. This joint venture will be managed by the international subsidiary company - Asia International Healthcare - which has a hospital of 50 beds in Siem Reap, to accommodate the needs for tourists visiting Angkor. This hospital in Siem Reap will be extended to 100 beds in the months to come.
The new center of Phom Penh will offer a 5 star service. Chatree Duang-Net, chairman of the Bangkok Hospital Medical Center explains: “Our center in Phnom Penh will provide services for check-up, diagnoses and first aid. If necessary, it will be used as platform to redirect the patients towards Bangkok Hospital Medical Centers to receive complementary care. “We also plan to open a 200 bed capacity general hospital in a nearest future. “ He also said that the Group made large investments for the diagnosis centers in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh for 75% and 70 % respectively. An important condition within the Group is to control the management and the operations of the centers.
Last year, Bangkok Dusit Medical Services created a new subsidiary company - Bangkok Helicopter Services - to provide a helicopter commuter service to transfer the patients towards his medical complex at New Phetchaburi Road in Bangkok.  “We invested 500 million Baths in a helicopter and a heliport, which will make us the first medical complex of Southeast Asia proposing this type of service ”, said Chatree. This helicopter service starts 1er October 2007.