Cambodia welcomed more than 1.7 million international tourists during the first quarter of 2018. It is a hike of 14 percent.
The Tourism Minister of Cambodia Thong Khon announced that this tourists’ influx happened for government’s strategy to attract international visitors.
The Chinese tourists continue to top the list of visitors to the country by nationality.
The Tourism Minister of Cambodia, Thong Khon also addressed that they are meeting their goals as laid out in their key strategy for the sector and are on course to greet 6 million visitors by the end of the year.
With over 500,000 visitors in the first three months of the year, an increase of 80 percent, China is the largest market for the local tourism industry. Cambodia expects to welcome 1.8 million Chinese tourists in 2018, 2.4 million in 2019 and 2.6 million in 2020, Mr Khon said.
In aviation sector of Cambodia, the new direct flights connecting Cambodia with a host of destinations in China and closer ties between the Cambodian and Chinese governments are the biggest factors cited by experts as contributing to the hike in the number of Chinese visitors.
The Chinese tourists like to visit Cambodia because it is geographically close to China and there are many direct flights. It was said by Luu Meng, co-chair of the Government-Private Sector Tourism Working Group.
Chhay Sivlin, president of the Cambodia Association of Travel Agents, said that in order to allow the sector to grow as planned, more effort needs to be put into diversifying the country’s tourism offer.
In 2017, Cambodia attracted 5.6 million foreign tourists. Out of which 1.2 million international tourists came from China.
Tags: Cambodia, Thong Khon, Tourism
