Nearly three million foreign tourists visited Cambodia in the first five months of 2025, marking an increase of nearly 12% compared to the same period in 2024. Of them, over 40% arrived by air.
Statistics released by the Ministry of Tourism on July 1 show that between January and May, Cambodia welcomes 2.95 million foreign guests, up 11.7% over the same period in 2024, which saw 2.64 million tourists enter. Among them, 1.21 million (41.2%) arrived by air, 1.69 million (57.3%) by land and 43,329 (1.5%) by water.
The top five countries of origin were: Thailand with 856,169, Vietnam 514,511, China 488,973, Laos 104,779, and the US 103,001. Other notable countries of origin included South Korea, the UK, France, Indonesia and Japan.
Between January and May, the Kingdom’s three international airports (Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Preah Sihanouk) recorded a total of 27,670 incoming and outgoing flights, an increase of almost 15%.
Khiev Thy, President of the Angkor Tourist Guide Association, told The Post on July 1 that the number of foreign tourists visiting the ancient temples in Siem Reap province during the first five months of the year was roughly the same as in the same period last year. He noted that this is typical for “low season” tourism. Most foreign tourists visit Cambodia between August and January, which is considered the “high season”.
Regarding the ongoing border tensions between Cambodia and Thailand – which have led to temporary border closures – Thy asserted that this would not significantly impact Cambodia’s tourism industry. He explained that since the border dispute over Preah Vihear Temple in 2008, the number of Thai tourists visiting Siem Reap has remained low. Most Thai visitors tend to travel to border areas for work or gambling rather than tourism.
“Although official records show that Thai nationals have been the largest group of foreign visitors to Cambodia over the past four to five years, the number of Thai tourists traveling to key tourist destinations especially Siem Reap has been quite low since the Preah Vihear border conflict of 2008,” he explained.
According to Thy, most of the foreign tourists currently visiting Siem Reap arrived by air, from countries such as Vietnam, Singapore or Malaysia.
The tourism ministry has projected that Cambodia will welcome between 7.2 million and 7.5 million foreign guests in 2025.
