Tourists visiting Cambodia have been encouraged to use local currency riel and digital payments rather than foreign currencies, especially US dollar to avoid rejection by local merchants and service providers, said senior officials.

The suggestion was made after a tourist guide with Facebook account name ‘Khat Sam Ath’ said on social media that a group of Singaporean tourists faced difficulties in making payments in US dollar claimed to be “slightly old, dirty or torn” during their three-day visit to in Siem Reap.

Sok Voeun, Chairman of Cambodia Microfinance Association (CMA), told Khmer Times yesterday that tourists and other visitors in Cambodia can use riel in making their payments as the local currency is printed and regulated by the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), which enables them to exchange such unusable bills for new ones unlike the US dollar which is printed and regulated in the United States.

“I cannot say specifically how old, dirty or torn the dollar bills that were rejected. To avoid such cases, I think it is best for tourists to make payments in riel. Not that using dollar is a problem always. They can use dollar if the banknotes are not severely damaged,” said Voeun.

Voeun, who is also CEO of microfinance institution LOLC (Cambodia) Plc, pointed out that damaged US dollar bills are accepted and exchanged for new ones in the US as the foreign currency is printed and regulated by the US’ central bank.

He further pointed out that it is difficult for vendors or merchants to accept severely damaged US dollar banknotes as there are a number of processes to send them to the US’ central bank to exchange for new ones, which is high costly.

Top Sopheak, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Tourism, told Khmer Times that tourists can also make digital payments through QR codes or other means as this method is safe and convenient.

“They do not need to worry of loss or hold a lot of bills with them,” he said.