Cambodia recorded 611,894 international tourist arrivals in January, with Thailand, Vietnam and China the top-three feeder markets. That is according to media reports, citing Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism and its latest travel statistics, published this week.
January’s rally was up 13.3 percent year-on-year, reported respectively the Khmer Times and Chinese news agency Xinhua, citing the official data.
In January, Thailand accounted for 189,343 arrivals, or 30.9 percent of the aggregate. Vietnam sent 85,796, or 14.0 percent of the total; and China’s 67,998 represented 11.1 percent, show an analysis of basic data reported by the Khmer Times.
As well as famous cultural sites such as Angkor Wat (pictured in a file photo) Cambodia also has an extensive land-based casino industry, though most of the properties are “small”, noted a Cambodia government official in December comments, adding that the country hoped to develop more large-scale “integrated resorts”.
Two of the best-known resort-scale venues are NagaWorld, a casino monopoly in the capital Phnom Penh, run by Hong Kong-listed NagaCorp Ltd; and DNA Star Vegas, a border casino complex at Poipet, popular with visitors from neighbouring Thailand. The latter is currently mulling legalising casino business, though there is an ongoing debate whether there should be a wealth qualification for Thais. Vietnam has a casino industry, but currently none of the venues are open to locals.
At a conference in late February, Cambodia tourism minister Huot Hak said the nation’s tourism authority had forecast “7.2 million to 7.5 million” international tourist arrivals for 2025. That is according to media reports.
At the lower end, that would be 7.5 percent year-on-year increase on 2024’s 6.70-million arrivals, and at the upper end, an 11.9-percent increase.
Based on the 7.2-million lower end of the ministry’s 2025 estimate, the January result is about 8.5 percent of it.
The 2024 total was itself a 22.9 percent improvement on 2023’s 5.45 million, and also 1.4 percent higher than the 6.61 million in 2019, the immediate trading year before the Covid-19 pandemic
During 2024, Cambodia’s most important tourism feeder markets by region were: Southeast Asia, supplying nearly 4.24 million visitors; and Northeast Asia, supplying 1.24 million visitors, the ministry of tourism’s statistics show.
