Cambodia’s tourism picks the pace

21 Mar 2013 2157 | Cambodia Travel News

PHNOM PENH, 20 March 2013: Visits to Cambodia continue to increase as January figures show a 15.4% improvement, Cambodia’s statistics and tourist Information Department reported Tuesday.

The country welcomed 404,106 visits when compared to 350,257 during the same month in 2012.

Released by the Ministry of Tourism, data indicated South Korea was the top supplier in January with 70,770 visits and an increase of 26.7% from 55,871 visits. Other top suppliers were: Vietnam (54,674); China (39,961); Laos (28,808), and the United States (21,040).

Thailand ranked in eighth place supplying 18,693 visits and improving 36.5% compared to 13,696 visits last year.

In January, 53.3% (215,210) of all international visitors arrived by air. Siem Reap airport received the major share, 35.3% (142,661), while Phnom Penh Airport received just 18.0% (72,549) of which many were business travellers who need to deal with government departments.

Overland travel accounts for 44.4% (179,273) of all trips mainly through checkpoints with Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, while sea travel is a small 2.4% (9,623) segment.

Siem Reap province welcomed 248,614 tourists, or 61.5% of the total of all arrivals including air and overland. The province’s tourism increased 10.9%.

Data hints of the massive imbalance between tourist arrivals to Siem Reap and the rest of the country. Although the country’s tourism ministry is making efforts to address this short coming by opening new destinations, the constant development of tourism related infrastructure in Siem Reap will ultimately cause serious issues socially for what was once a small rural town.

By region, Asia Pacific’s markets accounted for a 70.9%share and posted a growth of 17.3% supplying 286,380 arrivals.

Europe and Africa grew 13.1% each to 84,830 and 611 visits respectively. Meanwhile, Oceania and the Americas recorded a growth of 5.9% each supplying 18,336 and 30,912 visits correspondingly.

The Middle East posted the lowest improvement of 2.2% on 1,373 visits.

With the positive note of arrivals, Minister of Tourism, Thong Khon, believes the country will attract 4 million tourists this year, up 11.73% from 3.58 million visits in 2012.

Outbound trips by Cambodians reached 71,720 a slight increase of 0.3% from 71,541 during the same month last year.

Top 10 source markets to Cambodia in January 2013