Cambodia's splashing Sea Festival

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSonFsRcXc4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXwg6t-TDok

Sunday January 1, 2012
Watch video in English at The Sky News.

Swimming, water races and beach volleyball are some of the events featured at Sihanoukville's Sea Festival in Cambodia.

Locals and foreigners gathered together to welcome the New Year,

The government hopes the festival would also give a boost to tourism.

'What makes me happy is that there are many people from all over the country to watch the event and furthermore is that Cambodia has another new festival and it is the Sea Festival,' Kim Sereyrath from Phnom Penh told Reuters.

You Sophana, from Kompong Chnang Province told Reuters that when she arrives, she feels happier than anywhere else. 'I can see many Khmers and many foreigners from many different countries here at the beach of Sihanouk Ville,' she told Reuters.

According to the Phnom Penh post, on seventh General Assembly in Senegal, the Paris-based Les Plus Belles Baies Du Monde named Cambodia as the newest member of the Most Beautiful Bays in the World Club.

The Sea Festival was expected to draw crowds of at least 50,000 people, as it also includes a New Year's Eve fireworks display.

"This Sea Festival is aimed at promoting sea tourism because all other countries gain at least fifteen percent in tourist numbers after sea festivals. So through this Sea Festival we encourage people and institutions to join hands to protect and develop our sea area," Cambodia's Tourism Minister Thong Khon told Reuters.