Visitors at Angkor Wat in Cambodia(Photo: phnompenhpost.com)
Phnom Penh (VNA) - The number of foreign tourists visiting Cambodia increased by 10 percent to 4.8 million in the first nine months of the year as Chinese continue to top the list of tourist arrivals, followed by Vietnamese.
According to the latest report from the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism, more than 3 million tourists arrived through one of Cambodia’s three international airports in Phnom Penh (1.5 million passengers), Siem Reap (1.2 million) and Sihanoukville (549,481).
The Ministry of Tourism’s spokesman Top Sopheak told Khmer Times this week that China continues to be the most important market for the local tourism sector due to the availability of direct flights to dozens of destinations in China.
The Chinese are followed by Vietnamese visitors as the main nationalities visiting the country, he noted.
The spokesman said the sector is experiencing healthy growth and there is no concern about the possibility that the number of tourists might decrease in the future. The Ministry of Tourism continues to work to attract more tourists by creating new tourism products in the main destinations, he added.
In 2018, 6.2 million foreign holidaymakers visited Cambodia, a year-on-year rise of 10.7 percent.
Cambodia is expected to attract 7 million foreign tourists in 2020, including 2 million visitors from China, generating a total of 4.3 billion USD for the “non-smoking” industry./.
