(Phnom Penh): On the occasion of coronation ceremony and water and moon festival from 29th October to 1st November 2020, there were 644,698 internal tourists travelled across the country; however, the expenses were lower than before according to H.E. DR. THONG KHON, Minister of Tourism.
H.E. DR. THONG KHON, the Minister, informed that in that figure above, there were 635,568 national tourists and 9,130 internal foreign tourists. The attractive destinations included:
1. Siem Reap Province: 167,225 tourists
2. Kampot Province: 73,592 tourists
3. Preah Sihanouk Province: 54,400 tourist
4. Kandal Province: 51,862 tourists
5. Kompong Speu Province: 43,244 tourists
6. Kep Province: 38,558 tourists
7. Koh Kong Province: 28,275 tourists
8. Mondulkiri Province: 22,023 tourists
Due to the impact of flood, the tourists decreased in the Western part but Siem Reap, coastal areas, and northern parts especially still received many tourists. For Phnom Penh, even though the water and moon festival was not organized, there were about 40 thousand tourists visiting the destinations, such as Koh Pich, seeing fireworks at riverfront, Royal Palace, Chroychangvar area, and Win-Win monument area.
During the water and moon festival, there were few enjoyable activities than the holiday before because the holiday at Khmer New Year was the first holiday after a short pause while Pchum Ben, people tended to go to pagodas, and after the flood, some infrastructures were destroyed and were being fixed as well as the cause of Molav storm.
During the Covid-19, the revenue was not much so people travelled with families along with packed food that resulted in the limited expense of each person. However, people and private sectors were happy to see the movement of domestic tourists in all destinations.
The safety, management, and general orders were noticeably good while the challenges of price management, and trash management were still the issues to be taken care off.
Meanwhile, all tourism destinations have been implemented the advice and reminder of Samdech Techo Hun Sen, and policy of the Ministry of Health and the tourism safety measures of the Ministry of Tourism in order to control the spread of Covid-19.