Cambodia's tourism enjoys growth

International tourist arrivals to Cambodia posted a double digit growth of 13.5% in October, while over the 10-month period the improvement reached 15.4%, according to the nation’s Tourism Statistics Report released by the Department of Statistics and Tourism Information, Ministry of Tourism, late last week.

Thai tourists to Cambodia started to improve after the Yingluck Shinawatra government took office in Thailand. It led to improved relations with Cambodia following months of disputes and border conflicts. However, in October there was still a decline of 18.4%, largely due to floods in Thailand’s central plains. In October, just 10,431 Thais visited Cambodia.

Overall, there were 91,343 Thai visits during the 10-month period, but that was still down 26.4% on the previous year.

In October, Cambodia received 233,190 visitors, up 13.5% over the same month in 2010. Neighbouring Vietnam contributed almost a quarter (23.2% share) or 54,008 tourists, a 26.1% rise in trips.

In terms of regions,  75.7% of international tourists in October came from Asia Pacific, up 15.4% from the same month last year to reach 176,630 trips. Most of the arrivals from this region originated in ASEAN and East Asia and largely from a handful of countries – Vietnam, Korea, China, Japan, Thailand, Laos and Australia. Arrivals from South Asia and western Asia and other countries in the Pacific represented just 1.8%.

Europe was the second contributor. The number increased at the beginning of the high season with a market share of 16.4% instead of 12.2% in September. It showed a small 8.8% improvement (38,207).

Tourists from the Americas also increased, accounting for a 7.3% share instead of 5.5% in September. It represented a marginal 3.6% improvement on 17,013 trips. Very few tourists originated from Africa and Middle East, just, 415 and 925 respectively.

In the emerging market category, eastern Europe posted a substantial growth of 43.2% with arrivals from Bulgaria and Romania surging 78.8% and 122.4% respectively. However, only Russia supplied notable volume — 4,805 out of 6,404 arrivals from the region. The country posted a 55.5% growth over October 2010.

By destinations visited, 122,450 tourists or 52.5% visited Siem Reap, while 110,740 or 47.5% visited Phnom Penh and other cities.

Around half of the tourists, 51% (118,822) arrived through two international airports in Phnom Penh (53,459) and Siem Reap (65,363), while 44.6% or 108,501 arrived through overland checkpoints.

Over the 10-month period, January to October, Cambodia welcomed 2,317,979 visitors, up 15.4% over the same period last year. The top supplier was Vietnam (22.3% share) followed by Korea (11.8%) and China (8.6%).

From January to October, 50.4% of tourists (1,168,482) arrived by air. Phnom Penh Airport received 521,454 or a 22.5% share, while Siem Reap Airport received 647,028 tourists, or a 27.9% share. Meanwhile, 46.7% (1,083,628) arrived through overland checkpoints and a small portion of 65,869 or 2.8% arrived by waterways.

Phnom Penh, the capital and other nearby destinations welcomed 1,028,425 tourists, up 5.8% representing a 44.4% market share. Of the total, 55.6% went to Siem Reap, 1,289,554 trips, up 24.4%.

The Ministry of Tourism also releases data on Cambodian outbound tourists. It indicates that from January to October, 573,439 Cambodians travelled overseas increasing 37.4%.

Source - ttrweekly