International tourists drop sharply. Where is Cambodia’s tourism industry headed?

China News Service, Phnom Penh, October 8 (Yang Qiang, Zhang Yanlin) The Cambodian Ministry of Tourism announced on the 8th local time that it will select an official to serve as a tourism attaché at the country’s embassy in China, with a term of office from January 1, 2027 to December 31, 2029. The official announcement stated that this selection is aimed at strengthening tourism cooperation between Cambodia and China, increasing promotion efforts, and attracting more Chinese tourists to Cambodia.

This is one of the latest measures taken by the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism to deal with the ongoing decline in international tourists. A statistical report released not long ago showed that from January to August this year, this Southeast Asian country received more than 2.25 million international tourists, a year-on-year decrease of 44.4%. Among them, there were 588,000 Chinese tourists, a year-on-year decrease of 25%, and they remain Cambodia’s largest source of tourists.

Vietnam followed with 585,700 passengers, a year-on-year decrease of 27.6%; the United States ranked third with 129,800 passengers, a year-on-year decrease of 7.3%. It is worth noting that due to the continued impact of the situation on the Cambodia-Thailand border, the number of Thai tourists visiting Cambodia dropped most significantly, from 962,400 in the same period last year to 47,800, a sharp drop of 95% year-on-year.

Tourism is an important pillar industry for Cambodia's economic development. The World Bank, Asian Development Bank, International Monetary Fund and other international institutions have recently lowered Cambodia's economic growth forecast for 2026, citing the weak performance of tourism and related service industries as one of the main drags on Cambodia's economic growth.

He Dong, chief economist of the ASEAN, China, Japan and Korea Macroeconomic Research Office, pointed out that Cambodia is currently facing multiple pressures such as weak tourism recovery, and the government should continue to improve the investment and tourism environment and promote the recovery of the service industry.

The Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia stated on the 7th that in order to deal with these challenges, the government has launched a comprehensive intervention plan, covering a special program to promote the recovery of tourism in Siem Reap Province, a series of intervention measures, and various tax preferential policies. At the same time, the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism also joined hands with the industry to launch the "Green Season Travel to Cambodia" promotion campaign to boost domestic tourism and diversify the international tourist source market.

Cai Xiuling, chairman of the Cambodia Tourism Association, said in an interview with local media that Cambodia needs to develop more diverse experience projects and improve service quality to meet tourists with different interests and backgrounds.

“There is still a lot of work to be done to attract more international tourists.” Netizen Sochenis Farah left a message on the social media of the Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia on the 7th, saying that we need to pay attention to the actual travel experience of international tourists. The most important thing is to listen to the voices of the public, including tour guides, drivers, hotels, restaurants, tour operators, general staff, those who deal with international tourists every day know a lot about the situation and their experience should be part of the decision-making process.

The Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia is widely listening to opinions and suggestions from experts and scholars, tourism practitioners, content creators and all walks of life, and promoting the implementation of feasible solutions. (over)