Cambodia benefits from "revenge tourism" boom

Governments throughout Southeast Asia are pleased with the uptake in foreign arrivals now that the pandemic is decidedly on the wane. The trend amongst travelers is called "revenge tourism", characterized by people having more extravagant and longer vacation cravings after being cooped up in their houses at the height of the health crisis. Cambodia's famed Angkor Archaeological Park attracted 134,152 foreign tourists in the first nine months of 2022, an increase of 2,075 percent compared to the same period last year. The tourism sector in Cambodia is expected to reach its pre-Covid-19 level in 2026 or 2027, according to the Ministry of Tourism.  Mam Bun Heng, the health minister, has announced that arrivals by land, sea, and air need no longer produce health certificates or show vaccination proof upon arrival. Tourist authorities in Phnom Penh, Cambodia have already welcomed more than one million visitors in 2022, up 720 percent year-on-year, with two million a real possibility before January 2023. Premier Hun Sen said 140,000 people had already this year visited the temple complex at Angkor Wat, near Siem Reap, although that figure includes the domestic and local expat markets. (Source: Khmer Times)