Authorities of Kien Giang Province and Thailand's Trat and Chanthaburi provinces have announced that a tourism service linking Viet Nam's Kien Giang Province with Cambodia's Sihanoukville and Thailand will be launched this year.

Vietnamese travel agencies will benefit from the new sea route as many foreign visitors who travel to Thailand and Cambodia visit Phu Quoc Island, which is offshore Kien Giang, according to Le Minh Hoang, director of the Kien Giang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

He said the three provinces also agreed to conduct surveys of tourist sites, including Viet Nam's Ha Tien, Rach Gia and Phu Quoc, Cambodia's Sihanoukvill and Thailand's Trat and Chanthaburi. The route will be opened after surveys are completed.

The new tourism route will shorten travel time to destinations in the three countries. It will take visitors about two and a half hours to go to Sihanoukville by boat from Phu Quoc and two more hours to arrive at Trat in Thailand.-VNS