Thai and Vietnamese tourists continue to account for more than 50 per cent of foreign visitors in Cambodia in the first six months of 2023 with Chinese nationals in third place, the latest Ministry of Tourism data showed.
Between January and June this year, about 2.6 million foreign visitors arrived in Cambodia, which is an increase of 409.1 per cent compared to 506,762 visitors in the corresponding period last year.
Of the total, about 33.7 per cent or 870,725 visitors were from Thailand, where numbers have increased by 547.7 per cent from last year, whereas Vietnam came in second with 463,487 visitors or 18 per cent, rising 223.6 per cent year-on-year.
The largest arrival pre-pandemic, Chinese visitors have only recently started to travel following the opening of their borders early this year.
In the first six months, up to 268,130 Chinese visitors arrived in Cambodia, marking a growth of 771.9 per cent compared to the same period in 2022.
Visitors from Laos ranked fourth with 140,373 people, followed by Americans, South Koreans, Indonesians, Russians, French and British people.
“Given that the global political and economic situation remains troubling, every country’s tourism depends on the same source market in the region, even more so with countries of contiguous borders,” said Pacific Asia Travel Association Cambodia Chapter chairman Thourn Sinan.
Pointing out that Cambodia was a high recipient of neighbouring country visitors, especially Thailand, which itself welcomed a third of total foreign tourists in ASEAN, he said the rise in neighbourly visits was down to public and private sector efforts.
Speaking to The Post on August 2, Sinan shared that the government and private sector organised domestic tourism events and also participated in overseas tourism forums to promote Cambodia.
“In this context, it is only ASEAN and neighbouring countries where Cambodia has high expectations of attracting visitors to come and visit,” he said.
But, Sinan urged Cambodia to ramp up plans and efforts to promote and adjust travel procedures to make the country more attractive to international tourists.
“We must not think that only visitors from a certain country or region are better as any tourist who visits our country brings benefits to our national economy as a whole,” he said.
Sharing her views on visitor arrivals, Cambodia Association of Travel Agents (CATA) president Chhay Sivlin said in early stages of tourism recovery since the pandemic, the sector was heavily dependent on regional visitors, particularly border nations.
She felt that that is due to the ease of crossing the border, which can be done by land, air or the waterways.
This situation is expected to continue for a “long time” because the economy of “big and far away countries” is not good now.
“In the context of weak global economic growth, tourism would depend mainly on neighbouring countries,” Sivlin told The Post.
In 2019, Cambodia received the most number of international visitors, rising 6.6 per cent to 6.6 million people compared to 2018, Ministry of Tourism data showed.
At the time, visitors from Thailand, Vietnam and Laos amounted to 1.6 million, which was about 24.3 per cent of the total.
Last year, 2.3 million international visitors landed in Cambodia, which was a huge growth at 1,059 per cent, from a low base in 2021.
Collectively, Thais, Vietnamese and Laotians totalled 1.4 million people, growing 1,252.55 per cent from 104,246 people in 2021.
