Cambodia’s tourism growth rate slows

BANGKOK, 18 July 2012: Arrivals from Thailand and Laos gained the highest growth rate in May of all Cambodia’s tourist suppliers according to the country’s latest tourism report.

Released by the Statistics and Tourism Information Department of the Tourism Ministry, the report showed a slowdown in travel from Thailand during May when compared with April (+165.2%).

April was packed with holidays and that attracted more travel to Cambodia from neighbouring markets, but Thailand still delivered a massive 97.3% (12,974) growth rate in May as diplomatic relations between the two countries improved.

Arrivals from Laos almost doubled with a growth rate of 99.7% representing 18,990 visits. In April,there were 12,721 visits from Laos an increase of 69.8%.

For the five-month period, arrivals from Thailand and Laos improved 88.8% and 87.4% respectively. They ranked fifth and fourth suppliers in term of numbers.

Overall, Cambodia welcomed 233,220 visitors during May, an increase of 22.6%. Looking at the January to April figures, the growth slowed down slightly compared to the first four months bringing the average growth down from 27.1% to 26.3%. The accumulated arrivals were 1,505,734.

Besides Thailand and Laos, arrivals from the Philippines also showed impressive gains after the start-up of the first air link (Cebu Pacific) between the two countries (Manila-Siem Reap) 19 April. Arrivals jumped 60.4%, while in May, due to 52.2% increase, Philippines moved into the top supply list.

The top three suppliers remained the same — Vietnam, South Korea and China, but the growth rate slowed down in May for Vietnam and South Korea from around 30%, last month, to 12.3% and 11.5% respectively. Arrivals from China were still robust at +35%.

Among the top 10 markets, only Taiwan showed a decline (-5.5%).

The surge in trips from neighbouring countries was also reflected in a rise of land arrivals. In May, trips registered at overland checkpoints accounted for 54.3% (126,637).

In terms of regions, the Middle East recorded the strongest growth of 54.9%, but the number was still small; only 700 visitors and it was followed by the largest market, Asia and the Pacific, +25% (116,707); Americas, +17.9% (16,188);Europe, +11% (29,061) and Africa, -9.4% (374).

Several countries in Europe reported declines, including the UK that dipped -6.5%. Germany recorded a significant improvement of 24.7%.

The overall growth of 11% was largely due to the Russian market that improved by 52.5%.

Siem Reap welcomed 121,799 tourists, or 52.2% of the total, improving 5.8%. Phnom Penh and other destinations tallied 111,421 tourists with a surge of 48.4% over the same period in 2011.

Sourced: ttrweekly