Vietnamese tourists top list in Cambodia

HCM CITY — Vietnamese tourists ranked top among foreign visitors to Cambodia in the first three months this year.

According to data released by the Cambodian Tourism Ministry, 179,000 Vietnamese tourists visited Cambodia from January to March, accounting for 18 per cent of total foreign arrivals.

South Korea was next with 151,000 or 15 per cent, followed by Chinese, Japanese, Russian and UK tourists.

In the first two days of this week, the country received more than 30,000 Vietnamese visitors, according Tith Chantha, general director of the tourism under the Cambodian Tourism Ministry.

He told the Phnompenh Post that Viet Nam's proximity to Cambodia and ease of access (by road, boat or plane) were the main factors in Vietnamese tourists topping the foreign visitors' chart in recent years.

Cambodia attracted more than 995,000 foreign tourists in the first three months of the year, up from 778,467 a year earlier.

More than 600,000 Vietnamese tourists visited the neighboring country last year, accounting for over 25 per cent of the total number of foreign visitors. This compared to 330,000 Korean, 240,000 Chinese, 120,000 Japanese and 110,000 American.

However, the country expects China to top the list in the future, targeting a million Chinese tourists by 2020. — VNS