First-Ever Direct Flight Between Cambodia and India Takes Off

19.06.2024 - 09:23 / skift.com / Bulbul Dhawan

The first-ever direct flight between India and Cambodia took flight over the weekend. The Phnom Penh-New Delhi service is being operated by Cambodia’s national airline Cambodia Angkor Air and it will operate four times a week. 

The move is aimed at enhancing the travel opportunities between the two countries, particularly promoting the rich spiritual heritage of Cambodia. 

When the flight was announced last month, Koy Kuong, Ambassador of the Royal Embassy of Cambodia to India, said that he was hoping the direct flight connectivity and demand for medical tourism in India would lead to the flow of tourists between the two nations to double year-on-year.

Increasing Tourism: According to an Economic Times report, in the first three months of 2024, Cambodia received 20,000 Indian tourists, marking an increase of over 25% from the same period last year. In 2023, around 69,000 Indian tourists visited Cambodia. This is up from the 2021 figure of 45,000, but still not back to the pre-Covid numbers of 75,000 Indian tourists. 

India is a key medical and religious tourism destination for Cambodians, Kuong said. He expects that more Cambodian people are likely to seek medical treatment in India due to lower cost as compared to neighboring countries. Cambodian tourists also visited India to see Buddhist sites in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. However, the direct flight connectivity is likely to boost other tourism aspects as well, he was cited as saying by PTI. 

“Before the direct flight they came either for pilgrimage or medical treatment, but now they will want to explore more. Besides religious tourism and medical tourism, they will explore places for sightseeing, and other places,” he said.

Cambodia-India Tourism Year: To boost tourism between the two countries, the tourism ministries of India and Cambodia have launched the inaugural ‘Cambodia-India Tourism Year’.

During the event, Indian tourism ministry director general Manisha Saxena said that the Cambodia-India Tourism Year would allow citizens of both the countries to explore the common culture shared by India and Cambodia.

Online travel company Ixigo’s stock was listed on the Indian bourses on Wednesday. The company was listed on both Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) at more than 45% above its IPO price. 

On both the stock exchanges, it hit the upper price band within the first two hours of trading. This means that Ixigo experienced heavy demand from buyers, leading to its trading being paused for the rest of the day. 

Ixigo’s debut on the stock exchanges is in line with its IPO performance, when investors applied for about 98 times the number of shares in its initial public offering. The company was aiming to raise $89 million