Phnom Penh,November 6 (AseanAll)  — The Kingdom of Cambodia and the Republic of Indonesia have agreed on four key points to further promote their bilateral cooperation in the tourism sector.

The agreement was made during a meeting between Huot Hak, Cambodian Minister of Tourism and Dr. Santo Darmosumarto, Indonesian Ambassador to Cambodia, at the ministry’s office in Phnom Penh on November 4,2024.

The Minister and the Ambassador agreed to strengthen Cambodia-Indonesia tourism cooperation in accordance with the spirit of the MoU on Cambodia-Indonesia Tourism Cooperation, enhance Muslim Friendly Tourism cooperation, cooperate to jointly encourage Indonesian air operators to launch a direct flight between Bali and Siem Reap to facilitate the travels of the people of the two countries and tourists.

Furthermore, both sides agreed to explore the possibility to organise a visit to exchange experience between Minister of Tourism of Cambodia and Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy of Indonesia, including the organisation of FAM Trip with the participation from private sectors of the two countries to organise tour packages.

Huot Hak spoke highly of the traditional friendship and diplomatic relations between Cambodia and Indonesia in the past 65 years, and lauded the tourism cooperation between both nations. He also welcomed the launch of Jakarta-Phnom Penh-Jakarta direct flights on April 10, 2023.

Besides, the Minister informed his guest about the political situation which is good in all aspects, including politics, society, economy, creating a favourable and conducive environment for socio-economic development, attracting international tourists and investment, as well as about various mechanisms to encourage the private sector, especially in the field of tourism, adopted so far by the Royal Government of Cambodia.

The Minister took the opportunity to invite the Ambassador, delegation, and family to attend the Water Festival from Nov. 14-16 and Muslim Travel Fair in December in Phnom Penh, and the 11th Sea Festival from Dec. 13-15 in Kampot province.

In 2023, about 5.45 million international tourists, of them 127,178 were Indonesian tourists, visited Cambodia. In the first nine months of 2024, the Kingdom welcomed some 4.29 million international tourists, a year-on-year increase of 22.5 percent, of them there were 123,437 Indonesian tourists, up 32.9 percent.