Number of Chinese tourists to Cambodia's Angkor up 33.5 pct in 8 months of 2024

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's renowned Angkor Archaeological Park attracted 50,431 Chinese visitors during the first eight months of 2024, up 33.5 percent from 37,759 over the same period last year, said a state-owned Angkor Enterprise's report on Wednesday.

The number accounted for 7.73 percent of the total 651,857 international tourist arrivals to the ancient park during the January-August period this year, the report said.

China was still the fifth-biggest source of foreigners to the Angkor after the United States, Britain, France, and South Korea, the report said, adding that tourists from 200 countries and regions had visited the site.

Situated in northwest Cambodia's Siem Reap province, the UNESCO-listed Angkor Archaeological Park is the most popular tourist destination in the Southeast Asian country.

The 401-square-km site is home to 91 ancient temples, which had been built from the ninth to the 13th centuries.

Cambodian Minister of Tourism Sok Soken has said that the future of Cambodia's tourism industry is inseparable from the inflows of Chinese tourists and investors.

"The growth of Chinese tourists is an important opportunity, not only to boost the tourism development, but also to create investment opportunities in other sectors," he said in a speech on Sunday during the opening ceremony of a Cambodia-China photo exhibition tour in Siem Reap province.

"Cambodia and many countries around the world have regarded China as a strategic partner and the most important source of market for their economic growth and national development," the minister added.