Nearly half a million Chinese tourists visited Cambodia in the first 11 months of 2023, up nearly 450% compared to the same period last year. They were among the more than 4.9 million foreign arrivals logged by the Ministry of Tourism.

According to the ministry’s latest Tourism Statistics Report, between January and November 2023, Cambodia received a total of nearly 4.92 million foreign visitors, an increase of 156.9% compared to the 1.91 million guests in the same interval of 2022. Visitors from China ranked third with 498,250 (10.1% of the total), jumping 449.7% from the 90,648 recorded last year. 

Despite the increase, the figures pale in comparison to the pre-Covid-19 figures of 2019, when a record high 6.61 million tourists visited the Kingdom. China made up the largest group, with 2.36 million arrivals.

The ministry noted that Thailand was the top source for this year’s guests, with 1.66 million tourists, or 33.7% of the total. This was followed by Vietnam (920,093), Laos (330,724) and several other nations including the US, South Korea, Indonesia, France, the UK and Russia.

Kong Sambath, vice-president of the Chinese-Cambodian Tour Guide Association, agreed that while the number of foreign tourists visiting the Kingdom has increased this year, it remains small compared to pre-pandemic figures.

He noted that the average length of stay for foreign guests is between two and three nights, while before 2020, most stayed for four to five nights. He acknowledged, however, that the situation has begun to gradually improve.

“Cambodia is planning to host a major Cambodia-China people-to-cultural relations event on January 14 next year. I believe that this event will encourage more Chinese tourists to come to Cambodia, especially to visit the ancient temples in Siem Reap, which has the most potential to attract guests of any tourist destination in the Kingdom,” he added.

Sambath said the number of arrivals depends on many factors such as country-to-country political relations, global economic growth, customer preferences, and the number of direct flights. Cambodia’s tourism sector still needs more time to attract more foreign guests, including the Chinese.

“As far as I know, current direct flights from China to Siem Reap Airport are only available from Kunming, while flights from major Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, are more numerous to Phnom Penh,” he added.

Khieu Thy, president of the Khmer Angkor Tourist Guide Association, said that although the number of Chinese tourists is smaller than in 2020, it has gradually increased. He noted that some tour guides who turned to other occupations during the years 2020-2022 are gradually returning to the tourism sector.

He added that tourism is an important part of national economic growth, as well as job creation, and provides income for individuals, households and the national economy as a whole.

“The number of visitors to Siem Reap is steadily increasing. However, Cambodia must work more actively on developing the environment and various services such as accommodation, souvenir shops, resorts, tourism and transportation to attract visitors, and ensure they have more options for entertainment and shopping,” he continued.

Cambodia was recently announced the winner of two categories at the World Travel Awards 2023: Asia’s leading cultural destination and Asia’s leading youth travel destination.