Business · Vietnam Bureau
Cambodia's tourist arrivals plummet 43.7% in first nine months
Cambodia experienced a sharp decline in international visitor arrivals during the first nine months of the year, with nearly 44 percent fewer tourists compared to the same period last year. Vietnamese and Chinese visitors, traditionally among the kingdom's largest source markets, saw particularly steep drops.
LSN Vietnam ·
Foreign tourist arrivals to Cambodia fell 43.7 percent year-on-year in the first nine months of the year, according to recent data, signaling continued challenges for the Southeast Asian nation's tourism sector. The sharp contraction reflects ongoing headwinds affecting regional travel patterns and Cambodia's recovery trajectory following pandemic-related disruptions.
Visitors from Vietnam, a key market for Cambodian tourism, declined 28 percent to 651,486 arrivals during the period. Chinese tourists, another major source of visitor numbers, fell 27.6 percent to 643,314. The pullback in arrivals from these two countries accounted for a substantial portion of the overall decline in international visitor traffic.
Other major source markets also registered losses. Arrivals from the United States decreased 5.6 percent to 140,276 visitors, indicating weaker demand even from traditionally resilient long-haul markets. The multi-country decline suggests broader factors influencing travel decisions across different geographic regions.
The tourism sector remains critical to Cambodia's economy, and the sustained weakness in visitor arrivals underscores the importance of stabilizing travel demand. Industry recovery will likely depend on renewed confidence in regional travel and Cambodia's continued efforts to position itself as an attractive destination across multiple market segments.
Photo: Visitors on the western causeway leading to Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia, December 2014. LBM1948 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).