Cambodian Tourism Minister Thong Khon said he supports tourism cooperation and joint venture plans between Lam Dong province and Cambodian localities during a meeting with a Lam Dong province delegation in Phnom Penh on May 27.

He also said he welcomes the initiative to open a direct air route linking Da Lat and Siem Reap, which are two popular tourist sites of Vietnam and Cambodia.

According to the Minister, Cambodia welcomed more than 80,000 Vietnamese visitors in the first four months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 97 percent.

This took Vietnam to third ranking, following the Republic of Korea and Japan, in terms of the number of visitors to Cambodia, representing an upgrade from the fourth and the sixth position in 2007 and 2006, respectively.

In the first quarter of this year, Vietnam welcomed around 50,000 Cambodian visitors, up 80 percent from the same period of last year.