Cambodia welcomes Air China flight with water cannon salute

On February 7, 2023, an Air China passenger plane is given a water cannon salute during a welcome ceremony at Phnom Penh International Airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. PHOTO AFP PHNOM PENH - Cambodia welcomed Chinese flag carrier Air China's inaugural flight to its capital on Tuesday with a water cannon salute.

Air China flight CA 745, carrying some 125 Chinese tourists, arrived at Phnom Penh International Airport from Beijing and received a warm welcome from Cambodia's Tourism Minister Thong Khon and Chinese ambassador to Cambodia Wang Wentian, as well as other officials.

The minister said that China is the most important outbound tourism market for the world, as 155 million Chinese tourists traveled around the globe in the pre-pandemic era.

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The comeback of Chinese tourists has given a boost not only to the tourism sector, but also to the kingdom's economy as a whole, he said.

He said that for Cambodia this year, we will try to attract between 800,000 and 1 million Chinese tourists. He said that in January, the Southeast Asian nation received 25,000 Chinese tourists.

In the pre-pandemic era, China was the largest source of foreign tourists to Cambodia, according to the Ministry of Tourism's report, the kingdom received 2.36 million Chinese tourists in 2019, accounting for 35.7 percent of the total tourist arrivals to the country and generating about $1.8 billion in revenue.