Around 2.2 million tourists visited the Angkor Archeological Park in Siem Reap province last year, down 14.8 percent from the year before, while ticket sales in 2018 brought in $99 million, down 15 percent from the previous year, according to recent figures released by Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism. Tourists from China, the United States, and South Korea meanwhile remained the largest source of foreign income to the vast 12th century Hindu temple complex, the Ministry said in a year-end report.
Speaking to RFA’s Khmer Service, Siem Reap Angkor Tour Guide Association president Khieu Thy said that fewer Chinese tourists are now coming to Angkor, with more opting instead to visit attractions in Preah Sihanouk province in the country’s south. At least three aircraft bringing tourists landed each day in Siem Reap in 2018. But only one plane landed each day in 2019, and on some days no planes landed at all, he said.
“Meanwhile, many Chinese tourists were going last year to Kompong Som,” also called Sihanoukville, he said.
