Siem Reap: Cambodia welcomes 5.37 million international tourists during the first ten months of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 22 percent, according to a report released by the Ministry of Tourism.

According to Agence Kampuchea Presse, Thailand topped the list of foreign tourists to Cambodia from January to October with 1.72 million visitors, a decrease of 14.9 percent compared to the same period last year. Some 1.08 million Vietnamese and 691,736 Chinese tourists traveled to Cambodia during the said period, up 31.6 percent and 52.5 percent, respectively.

As many as 1.9 million foreign visitors, or about 35.5 percent of the total foreign tourist arrivals, traveled to Cambodia by air, a year-on-year increase of 27 percent, while the remaining tourists arrived via land border gates and waterways, the source pointed out.

The increasing number of foreign tourists reflected the result of efforts made by the ministry and relevant parties in promoting the tourism sector, said H.E. Top Sopheak, Secretary of Stat
e and Spokesperson of the Ministry of Tourism. “This growth of foreign tourist arrivals reflects that the tourism sector in Cambodia is recovering upward,” he said.

Cambodia is well-known for its world cultural heritage sites, such as the Angkor Archaeological Park in Siem Reap province, the Preah Vihear Temple and Koh Ker Temple in Preah Vihear province, and the Sambor Prei Kuk Archaeological Site in Kampong Thom province. Besides, the Kingdom has a 450-kilometer-long pristine coastline stretching across four southwestern provinces of Preah Sihanouk, Kampot, Kep, and Koh Kong.

At the same time, the ministry’s report showed that Cambodia’s outbound tourism also went up by 2.6 percent to 1.57 million during the mentioned period. Last year, the Kingdom received 5.45 million foreign visitors, earning a gross revenue of US$3.08 billion, according to the Ministry of Tourism.