Touristm officials predict that most if not all of Cambodia's 17,000 hotel rooms and 3,000 guest house rooms are booked this weekend for the Khmer New Year, local media reported on Saturday.

Tourism Ministry Secretary of State Thong Khon was quoted by The Cambodia Daily as saying that a 25 percent increase in foreign tourist arrivals has also been accompanied by a 20 percent increase this year in Cambodians traveling inside the country for recreation.

"I am sure that domestic travelers have caused all the hotels to be booked," he said. "People have money, and there are good road links to resorts that are fully secure," he added.

In the first three months of 2006, 460,000 tourists arrived in Cambodia, up 25 percent from last year, Thong Khon said.

Ho Vandy, president of the Cambodian Association of Travel Agents (CATA), said that Sihanoukville municipality and Siem Reap, Ratanakkiri and Mondolkiri provinces were flooded for the Khmer New Year.

Provincial authorities also put more tourism police on alert during the holiday.

A manager at Sihanoukville's Golden Sand Hotel said all 112 rooms at the hotel were booked from April 13 to April 16.

The capital Phnom Penh is some easing and quiet due more than 100,000 left here for home, most of them were the garment factory workers, and also many citizens went to countryside to celebrate the holiday.

Source: Xinhua