Phnom Penh (VNA) - The number of foreign tourists visiting Cambodia increased by 10percent to 4.8 million in the first nine months of the year as Chinese continueto top the list of tourist arrivals, followed by Vietnamese.
According to the latestreport from the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism, morethan 3 million tourists arrived through one of Cambodia’s three internationalairports in Phnom Penh (1.5 million passengers), Siem Reap (1.2 million) and Sihanoukville(549,481).
The Ministry of Tourism’s spokesman Top Sopheak told Khmer Timesthis week that China continues to be the most important market for the localtourism sector due to the availability of direct flights to dozens ofdestinations in China.
The Chinese are followed by Vietnamese visitors as the mainnationalities visiting the country, he noted.
The spokesman said the sector is experiencing healthy growth andthere is no concern about the possibility that the number of tourists mightdecrease in the future. The Ministry of Tourism continues to work to attractmore tourists by creating new tourism products in the main destinations, headded.
In 2018, 6.2 million foreign holidaymakers visited Cambodia, a year-on-yearrise of 10.7 percent.
Cambodia is expected to attract 7 million foreign tourists in2020, including 2 million visitors from China, generating a total of 4.3billion USD for the “non-smoking” industry./.