Cambodia’s travel business robust

PHNOM PENH, 26 February 2013: Cambodia Ministry of Tourism reports the country’s outbound travel market soared 11.7% to reach almost 800,000 trips last year.

Released, late last week, the ministry data indicated there were 792,398 trips up 11.7% compared to 709,616 trips in 2011.

Cambodia Association of Travel Agents president, Ang Kim Eang, said most the trips were to ASEAN countries thanks to visa exemption agreements and new direct flights and the easing of cross border travel rules.

“In ASEAN, Vietnam is the most popular followed by Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia for leisure, business or medical treatments,” the president said.

“Outside the bloc, they also visit China including Hong Kong, Macau, Kunming, and Shanghai thanks to improved flight connections.”

He added that the rise of Cambodia’s outbound travel was due to an improvement in earnings and living standards.

Cambodia has a small population of just 14.5 million. By the end of 2012, Cambodian per capita GDP (Gross Domestic Product) was nearly US$1,000, according to the government’s report.

On the inbound travel front, ASEAN supplied the most travellers, accounting for 42.2% of all travellers to Cambodia last year.

There were 1,514,267 ASEAN travellers who visited the country up 37.5% from 1,101,111 in 2011. Vietnamese tourists topped the chart with 763,136 visits followed by Laos (254,022), Thailand (201,422), Malaysia (116,764), and Philippines (97,487).

The association  president then said the growth was due to better connectivity between Cambodia and ASEAN member states by either land or air.

“Visa exemptions among ASEAN member states  gave people an incentive to travel. To date, Cambodia offers visa exemption for all ASEAN states, except Brunei and Myanmar.”

Sourced: ttrweekly