Tourist arrivals in Cambodia surged by 11.5% to 3.9 million during the first nine months of the year, according to latest figures from the country’s Ministry of Tourism.
The numbers were boosted by a 45% increase in Chinese visitation, with more than 841,000 arriving in the nine months to 30 September 2017, with China now the number one source of tourist arrivals to Cambodia. Neighbouring Vietnam saw 14.5% fewer people travel across the border to Cambodia with 593,000 making the pilgrimage.
It is anticipated that Cambodia will see a total of around 5.5 million visitors arrive in 2017, up from 5 million last year, with the goal of attracting 7 million by 2020.
“The growth of tourists is a good sign and we project that we can reach 5.5 million people by the end of this year,” said Kong Sopheareak, Director of the Statistics and Information Department at the Ministry of Tourism.
“We need to improve our tourism products in order to attract more tourists to the country.”
The figures are also good news for NagaCorp, which launched the new Naga2 extension to its NagaWorld property in Phnom Penh last week.
NagaCorp stated earlier this year that, “Overall visitation growth continues to be the key driver of growth for the group.”