Cambodia’s three-day Sankranta festival, the traditional New Year celebration, welcomed 13.1 million people traveling to various tourist attractions across the country, according to Tourism Minister Thong Khon. This year’s festival saw a higher number of tourists compared to the pre-Covid era, with 55,691 foreign visitors traveling across the country. The top five tourist destinations were Siem Reap Province, Battambang Province, Kampong Cham Province, Phnom Penh Municipality, and Preah Sihanouk Province. Cambodia’s full peace and successful control of Covid-19 were attributed to the sharp rise in New Year travelers. Prime Minister Hun Sen stated that the Sankranta festival would give a boost to the pandemic-devastated tourism industry and is expected to attract more than 4 million international visitors in 2023, double the 2.2 million international visitors it had in 2022.