Over 1 million tourists travel in Cambodia during Lunar New Year holiday

The Angkor Wat temple complex, a tourist magnet in Siem Reap province, Cambodia (Photo: AFP/VNA)

They comprised about 993,990 locals and 57,480 foreigners who travelled within the country during February 9-11, the ministry said, adding that the top five tourist destinations were Preah Sihanouk province (nearly 300,000 visitors), followed by Siem Reap and Battambang provinces (over 100,000 each).

Ho Vandy, an advisor at the Cambodia Tourism Association, said that a considerable number of people in Cambodia have tended to go travelling during holidays and weekends, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic eased.

He also pointed out a sharp rise in the number of tours to the country booked by Chinese during the Lunar New Year holiday, by about 20-30% compared to last year’s holiday.

The MoT reported that Cambodia’s tourism sector earned more than 3 billion USD in 2023, surging 115% from the previous year’s revenue of 1.41 billion USD. The country welcomed 5.45 million international tourist arrivals in 2023, up 140% from the 2.27 million in 2022.

Anticipating further tourism recovery this year, Cambodia hopes to attract the number of tourists equivalent to or exceeding the record set in 2019, before the pandemic broke out, when it saw over 6.6 million international tourists and earned nearly 5 billion USD in revenue, or about 12% of its GDP.

Tourism is one of the four pillars of the Cambodian economy./.