PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AFP)--Cambodia's seaside airport near Sihanoukville is slated to become the country's largest as a new focus is placed on bringing tourists into the area, Tourism Minister Thong Khon said Friday.
"We project that Sihanoukville will be a well-developed city with potential in three areas: trade, industrial and tourism," Thong Khon told AFP in an interview.
"The plan of the government is for this airport to be bigger" than Phnom Penh International Airport.
A year after its reopening, service at the Sihanoukville airport remains limited to chartered domestic flights.
But plans are underway to make it a regional travel hub, with the first phase of a $200 million expansion expected to be completed by March.
The airport, some 230 kilometers southwest of Phnom Penh, had been closed since the early 1980s due to financial difficulties.
Direct flights between Siem Reap, the gateway to Cambodia's famed Angkor temples, and foreign cities have prompted a rise in tourist arrivals.
Officials hope Cambodia's south - which boasts long stretches of undisturbed coast and several islands currently under development - can also benefit from this boom by providing air links either to Siem Reap or directly to other countries.
Some 100,000 people visited Sihanoukville last year, Thong Khon said, adding that the government aimed to attract one million people by 2015.
Cambodia is one of the world's poorest countries, with tourism being one of the few rapidly growing industries bringing in much-needed revenue.
Tourist arrivals to Cambodia topped two million in 2007, marking a 20% increase over the previous year, Thong Khon said.
Officials hope to attract 2.4 million people to the country this year.
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