Phnom Penh (VNA) – Cambodia recorded more
than 1 million tourists during the Lunar New Year holiday, according to its
Ministry of Tourism (MoT).
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./.
VNA