Phnom Penh: Following a successful year in 2024 that saw foreign tourist arrivals exceed expectations, the Ministry of Tourism has set an ambitious target of attracting up to more than 7 million international tourists in 2025.
According to Agence Kampuchea Presse, the Ministry of Tourism has set a strategic plan to attract between 7.2 and 7.5 million foreign tourists in 2025, as stated by H.E. Huot Hak, Minister of Tourism, during a dissemination on ‘Tourism Promotion and Anti-Fake News’ held on January 15 at the Ministry of Information. Cambodia welcomed 6.7 million international tourists in 2024, marking a 22.9 percent increase compared to 2023 and a 1.4 percent rise compared to 2019, the period before the COVID-19 outbreak.
With the ambition to bring more foreign tourists to Cambodia, the ministry will prioritize essential tasks such as developing a detailed action plan, ensuring effective and responsible implementation, and continuously monitoring and assessing tourist arrivals. The Ministry of Tourism has also assigned working groups to prepare strategies aimed at increasing attractiveness among the Muslim tourism market in response to trends and the growing size of this market segment.
The ministry aims to eliminate the traditional ‘low season’ in Cambodia, striving to maintain a consistently high influx of tourists year-round. Currently, Cambodia experiences distinct tourism seasons, with a low season from April to September and a high season from October to March.
To enhance convenience for travelers and tourists, the Royal Government has instructed relevant ministries and institutions to improve and streamline procedures for issuing visas through the e-Visa and e-Arrival systems into a single ecosystem. Recently, the Royal Government adjusted visa fees by reducing the price of electronic visas (e-Visa) for both tourist (T) and regular (E) types. The fee for the tourist type (e-Visa T) is now reduced to US$30 from US$36, while the fee for the regular type (e-Visa E) has been cut from US$42 to US$35.