The Ministry of Tourism’s new strategy of ‘Uniting for a Collective Vision’ to reposition Cambodia as a leading global destination has started yielding positive results. Going by the latest Tourism Statistics Report of the Ministry, international tourists who arrived in Cambodia touched 2.11 million mark in the first four months this year, reaching 38 percent of the total number of tourists in 2023. Should the number maintain its momentum this way, the arrival of international tourists will reach over 6.3 million, an increase of 11.5 percent compared to last year
Tourism, one of the four pillars for developing the economy in the Kingdom, was badly hit by the pandemic and still grappling to catch up with the pre-Covid pandemic levels.
To just give a feel of what the tourism sector in Cambodia was like before Covid-19 broke out in 2019, the stats speak for itself: It directly employed over 630,000 people with a revenue of nearly $5 billion, and contributed 18.2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), the highest among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus three — China, Japan and the Republic of Korea.
After the pandemic in November 2021, the sector was only able to generate about $1.415 billion from 2.27 million international tourists and approximately $650 million from 13.93 million domestic visitors, contributing only 3.6 percent of domestic growth in 2022.
Even with its well-known Angkor Archaeological Park located about six kilometres northwest of Siem Reap province and ancient temples and breadthtaking beaches in the country and not least the beautiful islands including its 450 kilometres of fresh white coastline, covering four southwestern provinces including Preah Sihanouk, Kampot, Kep and Koh Kong provinces, tourism could not rebound to its pre-Covid levels.
Dawn of New Hope
But the year 2023 appeared to bring hopes with the Kingdom experiencing an increase of inflow of foreign tourists, recording approximately 5.43 million tourists, an increase of 140 percent compared to the same period in 2022. The country’s economy has witnessed robust growth with 7.3 percent growth last year.
Nep Samouth, Director-General of the Ministry of Tourism, speaking to Khmer Times said, “The development of tourism will bring the benefit as a whole to Cambodia, not just a certain province with more tourist destinations. The RGC will manage the budget to develop infrastructure such as roads, schools, hospitals and new tourist sites across the country.”
In addition to developing tourist destinations like Siem Reap, Ratanakiri and Kep provinces, the Royal Government of Cambodia has set four more new poles – Battambang, Pursat, Pailin, and Banteay Meanchey provinces – to attract tourists.
Going by the latest Tourism Statistics Report of the Ministry of Tourism (MoT), international tourists who arrived in Cambodia touched 2.11 million mark in the first four months this year, reaching 38 percent of the total number of tourists in 2023. If the number keeps on going this way, the arrival of international tourists in the Kingdom will reach over 6.3 million, an increase of 11.5 percent compared to last year.
The top 10 markets from January to April where tourists came are Thailand, Vietnam, China, Lao PDR, the United States, Korea, France Indonesia, the United Kingdom and Japan. The number of tourists from Thailand were the highest, reaching 588,312 people, followed by 414,366 Vietnamese and 260,455 Chinese, read the MoT report.
The Phnom Penh International Airport (PNH) alone received 568,640 international tourists, while Siem Reap Angkor International Airport (SAI) recorded 250,382 tourists and the Sihanouk International Airport (KOS) reported 4,935 tourists by April 2024.
On internal tourism, both domestic and foreign visited three major destinations such as 906,474 tourists in Phnom Penh capital, 421,379 tourists in Siem Reap province and 212,317 in coastal zone by the first four months of 2024, the report said.
According to MoT’s statistics, Cambodia generally attracts about 500,000 international tourists monthly, making it possible to reach 6 million tourists’ expectations by the end of this year or even a little more.
Sok Soken, Minister of MoT, has set out the strategic initiative theme ‘Uniting for a Collective Vision’ which aimed to reposition Cambodia as a leading global destination. One of the minister’s main focuses was to disseminate the strategy known as ‘BUILD+3Ds’ aimed at transforming into a potential sector contributing to the development of the economy as well as attracting more investments into the Kingdom.
Outlining his ministry’s new strategy, Soken said, “The new strategy aimed at streaming and enhancing the efforts to transform Cambodia into a global tourist destination with the mission to build an enabling environment of the country to become a Competitive, Sustainable, and Inclusive (CSI) destination.”
In an effort to strengthen tourism destinations, Soken organised a meeting with Oh Young-hun, Governor of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province of the Republic of Korea to boost tourism connectivity through the joint initiative to conduct more upcoming programmes and develop and build connected transport infrastructures.
During the meeting, the minister underlined the MoT effort to rebrand the tourism sector, identify priority markets and provide a competitive tourism industry through the development of human resources, predesign of structures and institutions, and digitalise of the tourism sector as a whole.
The Jeju Governor told the Minister about the potential tourism cooperation especially in Siem Reap province by boosting more direct flights, developing infrastructures and modernising transport procedures.
Ho Yeon Chang, Korean Air Country Manager to Cambodia told Khmer Times, “Korean Air continues to monitor travel and trade demand and is committed to discussions with all relevant authorities to facilitate and strengthen the strong relationship between our two countries.”
Exploring new routes
Noting the spike in foreign tourists, AirAsia announced its seventh airline known as ‘AirAsia Cambodia’ with an initial fleet of two Airbus A320s on May 1, expecting to facilitate approximately 1.3 million passengers in the first year of operation to three destinations including Phnom Penh capital, Siem Reap and Preah Sihanouk provinces.
A month later, AirAsia Cambodia announced a new direct flight, operating directly from Kuala Lumpur to Sihanoukville from July 3, with three flights per week on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
Sin Chansereyvutha, Under-Secretary of State and Spokesman for the Secretariat of State for Civil Aviation said the airline had already flown the Kuala Lumpur-Sihanoukville flight route, but flight service was shut down due to the outbreak of Covid-19.
“Now the economic situation seems to be improving, which is the reason the airline decided to resume its flight service,” Chansereyvutha told Khmer Times.
Speaking to Khmer Times, Craig Dodge, Director of Sales and Marketing of Phare Circus said, “AirAsia Cambodia is a very welcome addition to the Kingdom’s airports as the airline is a well-known brand in the region, making travellers comfortable booking them.”
Besides, they have great reach through the greater AirAsia network of airlines, making the flights more accessible to passengers. “Timing the schedules with AirAsia flights between the Kingdom and the rest of their network can provide convenient online connections that didn’t exist before,” he added.
On June 22, Cambodia Airports – powered by Vinci Airports – announced that Xiamen Airline, an airline headquartered in Beijing, has resumed flights between Chongqing and Phnom Penh, operating four flights per week which travel between vibrant cities is now a breeze.
Similarly, Cambodia Angkor Air, the national flag carrier – launched the first direct flight between Phnom Penh to New Delhi on June 16 coinciding with Cambodia-India Tourism Year 2024.
Additionally, the Emirates also resumed service to the Kingdom in early May, offering a world-class travel experience of air connectivity between Dubai city and Phnom Penh capital, using a Boeing 777-300ER that offers eight spaces of First-Class Private Rooms, 42 Business Class Seats and 310 Economy Class Spacious Seats.
As the construction of Techo Intranational Airport (TIA) was expected to be completed in the first half of 2025, Lim Lina, Vice Chairlady of Canadia Group said the “project is at 72.3 percent completion with a total investment to date of $1.052 billion of which 340.5 million was raised through the issuance of airport bonds to local financial institutions, corporates and individuals.”
During the completion of TIA’s first phase in March, Prime Minister Hun Manet said, “The new airport will serve multiple purpose such as attracting international tourists, boosting logistics development and promoting the Kingdom’s popularity worldwide, and the completion of this new airport will have the capacity to facilitate up to 50 million passengers annually.
TIA will serve three major purposes as it has the potential to attract international tourists through its modern facilities, contribute to boosting the logistics development, further become a historical project that will promote the Kingdom’s popularity worldwide and the project will attract economic flow to the people living in Southwest of the country.
Over 40 New Direct Flights
The year 2024 also saw a spike in direct flights to different international destinations. According to the Summer 2024 flight schedule issued by the State Secretariate of Civil Aviation (SSCA) in March, Phnom Penh International Airport has a total of 30 airlines that provide direct flights to 14 countries including Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Philippines, Korea, Qatar, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Myanmar, Indonesia and India.
Talking to Khmer Times, Chhay Sivlin, President of Cambodia Tourism Association (CATA) said, “The increase of direct flights played a crucial role in attracting international tourists and investors into Cambodia compared to other transportation abilities.”
“In developed countries, the number of tourists is generally associated with the number of direct flights, hence it is best if the government can continue to establish more direct flights, connecting to Phnom Penh or Siem Reap,” she added.
Tourism in Cambodia is developing rapidly through the government’s strategic plan especially the MoT by improving the tourist destination sites and its services including hospitality, clean environment, visitor security, and implementation of digital technology for booking and payment as well.
According to the State Secretariate of Civil Aviation (SSCA), in addition to 30 new flights, the Siem Reap Angkor International Airport (SAI) has a total of 11 airlines from six countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Laos which recently closed after six months of operation with Cambodia, making only 10 airlines available for passengers in Siem Reap.
Similarly, the Preah Sihanouk International Airport (KOS) has only two airlines which are Cambodia Angkor Air and AirAsia Cambodia, which was launched last week.
Improved air connectivity will no doubt make travel more convenient, which can lead to an increase in the number of tourists travelling between the countries. Needless to say, increased tourism could bring economic benefits and boost cultural exchanges and overall strengthen the ties between nations.
