Vietnam was still at the top of the country’s tourist arrivals, but the numbers rose only slightly in the first nine months of the year, he added. Mr. Sopheareak said to attract more Vietnamese tourists to Cambodia there should be more transportation from Vietnam to Cambodia since the majority of Vietnamese tourists arrived by bus and road safety must be enforced. He suggested there should also be more tourism destinations promoted apart from Angkor Wat. “I hope that Vietnam tourist arrivals to Cambodia will increase at the end of the year and the five million plan for attracting foreign tourist arrivals to Cambodia will be achievable,” Mr. Sopheareak said.
Chinese, Thai Tourist Numbers Up
Khmer Times | 17 November 2016
The number of tourist arrivals in Cambodia from China and Thailand rose sharply in the first nine months of the year, while Vietnam still led the top 10 arrivals.
The number of Vietnamese tourists increased slightly, but the number of South Korean and Lao visitors dropped sharply, according to a report from the tourism ministry.
Kong Sopheareak, the director of statistics and information at the Ministry of Tourism, told Khmer Times yesterday that 3.5 million foreign tourists visited Cambodia in the first nine months of the year, representing a 4.8 percent rise over the same period last year.
Mr. Sopheareak said from January to September this year, tourist arrivals from China rose about 12.5 percent, up to 577,283. Thai visitors rose 18.9 percent, up to 255,647, while Vietnam topped the charts with an increase of 0.1 percent to 695,670.
“The increase in Thai tourists visiting Cambodia is because Thailand shares a common border with our country. There is a lot of Thai investment here and it’s easy for Thais to cross the border,” Mr. Sopheareak said.
Aside from the increase in Chinese tourist arrivals, Mr. Sopheareak added: “Both Cambodia and China have a good relationship and big investments and that’s the reason Chinese tourists like to come here and there are more and more direct flights from China to Cambodia.”
Mr. Sopheareak added that the fall in numbers of Lao tourist arrivals was due to the lack of flights between Cambodia and Laos, less investment from Laos in Cambodia and only a single border gate between the two countries.
Vietnam was still at the top of the country’s tourist arrivals, but the numbers rose only slightly in the first nine months of the year, he added.
Mr. Sopheareak said to attract more Vietnamese tourists to Cambodia there should be more transportation from Vietnam to Cambodia since the majority of Vietnamese tourists arrived by bus and road safety must be enforced.
He suggested there should also be more tourism destinations promoted apart from Angkor Wat.
“I hope that Vietnam tourist arrivals to Cambodia will increase at the end of the year and the five million plan for attracting foreign tourist arrivals to Cambodia will be achievable,” Mr. Sopheareak said.
Ho Vandy, the secretary-general of Cambodia's National Tourism Alliance, told Khmer Times that the increase in numbers from China and Thailand was due to Cambodia’s strong diplomatic ties with both countries.
Mr. Vandy said more Chinese tourists would visit Cambodia if there was a railway link from Southern China to Myanmar that continued on to Laos and to Cambodia. He also called for more direct flights from China’s mainland cities to Phnom Penh.
About 4.78 million foreign tourists visited Cambodia last year, up from 4.5 million in 2014, according to figures from the Ministry of Tourism.
The ministry is developing a new marketing strategy to ensure it meets its goal of drawing five million international tourists a year by 2016 and 7.5 million a year by 2020.
It says this will generate $5 billion in economic activity annually and create about one million jobs. The plan aims to draw two million Chinese tourists a year to Cambodia by 2020.
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