Buddhist monks prepare a dragon float during the Meak Bochea Buddhist celebrations at a pagoda in Phnom Penh on Jan 28, 2021. Cambodia and Sri Lanka have agreed to organise Buddhist tourism events in the future. - AFP
PHNOM PENH (Xinhua): Cambodia and Sri Lanka on Tuesday (May 10) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on tourism cooperation, paving the way for the two sides to promote direct flights and tourism exchanges.
Speaking before the signing ceremony, Cambodia's Tourism Minister Thong Khon said that under the MoU, both sides will try to promote direct flights or charter flights.
Currently there are no direct flights operating between the two countries and air passengers have to take a transit flight in Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore before arriving in Cambodia.
"Both sides have agreed to organise Buddhist tourism events in the future," he said, adding that the two sides have also agreed to further explore the potential for their tourism cooperation.
Khon said Cambodia is ready to welcome tourists from all over the world. The kingdom has reopened its borders to fully vaccinated travellers without quarantine since last November and reinstated the visa on arrival scheme for all international travelers since March after most of the country's population have been vaccinated against Covid-19.
Cambodia has so far provided at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to almost 15 million people, or 93.7 pe cent of its 16 million population, said the health ministry, adding that 14.23 million people, or 89 per cent of the population, have been fully vaccinated with two required shots.
Most of the Covid-19 vaccines used in the South-East Asian country have been China's Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines.
Cambodia has reported no new Covid-19 cases since last Saturday and currently there are still 22 active cases recorded in the country, said the health ministry.
Since the pandemic hit Cambodia in January 2020, it has registered a total of 136,262 confirmed cases with 133,184 recoveries and 3,056 deaths, the ministry added.
