Cambodia attracted around 3.03 million international travellers in the first seven months of this year, a whopping 308 percent increase from the same period in 2023, according to a report from the Ministry of Tourism.

“The total number of international visitors to the Kingdom was around 2.27 million. Cambodia received a total of 3,037,344 international travellers in the first seven months of this year,” Top Sopheak, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Tourism, told Khmer Times yesterday.

While the number of international tourists was 6.20 million in 2018 and 6.6 million in 2019, it slumped to 1.31 million in 2020 and 196,495 in 2021 due to the adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The tourism sector showed signs of revival in 2022, with the number of international tourists surging to 2.27 million.

Cambodia expects to attract around five million international tourists this year. According to the ministry’s estimates, the number of foreign visitors to the country will reach seven million in 2025, surpassing the pre-COVID-19 pandemic figure in 2019.

“Thailand retained the top spot for the most number of foreign tourist arrivals to Cambodia in the first seven months of this year. So far, the Kingdom received 1.03 million travellers from the neighbouring ASEAN country,” Sopheak said, quoting the Tourism Statistics Report in July.

While the country received 551,156 travellers from Vietnam, the Kingdom attracted 318,498 visitors from China. Laos bagged the fourth spot with the number of visitors from the neighbouring country at 173,886.

Around 110,697 travellers from the US visited Cambodia during this period, while 101,728 South Koreans visited the country.

Indonesia (72,904), France (61,344), the UK (58,829), and Russia (58,693) are the other countries in the top ten tourist arrival markets for Cambodia.

Meanwhile, the Asian Development Bank’s Asian Development Outlook (ADO) in July 2023 said the tourism recovery was in full swing in Asia and the Pacific, including Cambodia. The sample was restricted to economies where tourism accounted for at least five percent of the gross domestic product in the latest year with available data.

“Revenge travel continues to lift tourist arrivals and related activities. In addition, while still subdued, China’s recovery supports the demand for agricultural exports from the subregion,” the outlook pointed out.

The July quarterly update of the ASEAN+3 Regional Economic Outlook (AREO), said the recovery of tourism and services sectors is expected to boost Cambodia’s GDP growth prospects in 2023 and 2024.

Responding to a question from Khmer Times in an online media briefing, AMRO Chief Economist Hoe Ee Khor said: “The Cambodian economy was growing at a moderate rate in the last few years and we expect growth to pick up this year, thanks to a recovery in the tourism sector and the services sector.”

Citing the performance of tourism as a key indicator of the recovery prospects of countries in the region, including Cambodia, Khor said: “Services exports—particularly tourism—are posting a rapid recovery. Tourist arrivals into the Plus-3 and CMV (Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam) economies exceeded 50 percent of the pre-pandemic level in the first quarter of 2023, and the return of Chinese visitors is poised to boost the sector further. Intra-regional tourism has been robust, offsetting the slow return of tourists from China thus far due to the late reopening of borders.”