Angkor to hike entrance fees

SIEM REAP Cambodia’s top tourist attraction, the UNESCO World Heritage Angkor Historical Park, intends to almost double entrance fees, effective from 1 February 2017.

The one-day fee increases from USD20 to USD37, the three-day pass from USD40 to USD62 and the week pass from USD60 to USD72.

It gives tour operators six months advance notice to revise  their tour prices that usually include the entrance fee to the park.

 However, critics claims that very little of the funds collected at the park trickle down to local communities. There is also a lack of information on how the entrance fees are spent to carry on important restorationswork, that is often left to foreign aid agencies to fund.

The heritage park welcomed 1,260,270 international tourists, January to July, this year, improving 1.76% over the same period, last year.

Agence Kampuchea Presse quoted data provided by state-owned, Angkor Institution, which handles all ticket sales at the World Heritage site.

The report claimed the country earned USD35.87 million from ticket sales for the first seven months of this year, up 2.33% compared to the same period, last year.

The Angkor Archeological Park is the top tourist attraction in Cambodia, considerably ahead of the coastal resorts in and around Sihanoukville and ecotourism sites in the northeast part of the country, the report said.

The largest source markets are China, South Korea and Japan.

The park was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1992 and is now the country’s largest cultural tourist destination. It is located in Siem Reap province, some 315 km northwest of capital Phnom Penh.