Cambodia received a total of 269,356 visitors, including 39,837 foreign tourists, from July 17 to 23, 2023, according to a report from the Ministry of Tourism.

The number of tourists decreased by almost nine percent last week as compared to the previous week, primarily due to people travelling to their provinces for election-related purposes, the report pointed out.

After the general election was over, many people returned to their hometowns to gather for dinner with their families and friends.

Battambang received the most number of tourists, with 37,410 people visiting the province last week. Preah Sihanouk province bagged the second spot as it attracted 35,849 travellers in the previous week. While capital Phnom Penh welcomed 33,437 tourists, Kampot province received 31,045 travellers. The Siem Reap province attracted 20,350 visitors, while 16,025 people went to Kampong Speu province last week. Meanwhile, Pursat province received 13,909 travellers in the previous week.

After the election, a significant number of Phnom Penh residents travelled to various tourist destinations in the country, with a majority visiting Sihanoukville via the expressway. According to a traffic report from the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway Company, 20,494 vehicles travelled via the expressway on July 23.

In the first week of July, Tourism Minister Thong Khon said Cambodia recorded around 2.57 million international visitors in the first half of 2023, a sharp increase of 409 percent from 506,762 over the same period last year.

“About 910,000 foreign tourists visited Cambodia by air, up 279 percent; 1.63 million by land, up 526 percent; and 30,000 by waterways, up 586 percent,” Khon said.

“Based on our latest forecast, Cambodia will be able to receive up to 5 million international tourists in 2023, an expected increase of 120 percent from 2.27 million in 2022,” the minister added.

He said the number of foreign visitors to Cambodia is expected to reach 7 million in 2025, surpassing the pre-Covid-19 level of 6.6 million in 2019.

Last week, the Asian Development Bank’s Asian Development Outlook (ADO) July 2023 said the tourism recovery was in full swing in Asia and the Pacific, including Cambodia. The sample was restricted to economies where tourism accounted for at least five percent of the gross domestic product in the latest year with available data.

“Revenge travel continues to lift tourist arrivals and related activities. In addition, while still subdued, China’s recovery supports the demand for agricultural exports from the subregion,” the outlook pointed out.

Earlier this month, the July quarterly update of the ASEAN+3 Regional Economic Outlook (AREO), said the recovery of tourism and services sectors is expected to boost Cambodia’s GDP growth prospects in 2023 and 2024.

Responding to a question from Khmer Times in an online media briefing, AMRO Chief Economist Hoe Ee Khor said: “The Cambodian economy was growing at a moderate rate in the last few years and we expect growth to pick up this year, thanks to a recovery in the tourism sector and the services sector.”

Citing the performance of tourism as a key indicator of the recovery prospects of countries in the region, including Cambodia, Khor said: “Services exports— particularly tourism—are posting a rapid recovery. Tourist arrivals into the Plus-3 and CMV (Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam) economies exceeded 50 percent of the pre-pandemic level in the first quarter of 2023, and the return of Chinese visitors is poised to boost the sector further. Intra-regional tourism has been robust, offsetting the slow return of tourists from China thus far due to the late reopening of borders.”