Siem Reap aims for half-million tourists for water festival
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Siem Reap aims for half-million tourists for water festival

Tourists take photos of the Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap on March 20. The town hopes for more visitors during the Khmer New Year holidays. (AFP photo)
Tourists take photos of the Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap on March 20. The town hopes for more visitors during the Khmer New Year holidays. (AFP photo)

Siem Reap hopes to attract 500,000 local and foreign tourists for the Khmer New Year celebration.

Chheuy Chhorn, deputy director of Siem Reap's Tourism Department, projected half a million visitors including foreign tourists, to the town, which is home to the famed Angkor Wat.

"The festival last year attracted close to 400,000 visitors. Of that number, more than 20,000 were foreign tourists. This year, we expect the number of foreign tourists to reach close to 30,000 people," the Phnom Penh Post on Tuesday quoted him as saying.

The Khmer New Year holidays runs April 14-16. It is called Sangkran in Cambodia, or Songkran in Thai.

Last month, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen promised that the festival in Siem Reap this year would be special as he planned to make the world's largest sticky-rice cake to earn recognition in the Guinness World Records.

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