Chinese arrivals surge 19% YoY in 2016

China is on track to overtake Vietnam as the main source of Cambodia’s tourists, according to industry insiders. The data released by Tourism Ministry showed that while Vietnamese visitors continued to top the list of international tourist arrivals in Kingdom in 2016, the total arrivals from the country fell 3% YoY to 950,000. Meanwhile, Chinese arrival surged 19% to 830,000 over the same period. Chhay Sivlin, president of Cambodia Association of Travel Agents (CATA) expressed confidence that China would soon take the top spot. However, she noted that the Ministry of Tourism still needs to increase the number of direct flights to the Kingdom in order to reach the target of welcoming 7 million tourists by 2020, including 2 million Chinese visitors. With China’s outbound tourists topping 122 million last year, far more than the entire population of Vietnam, government initiatives to attract a larger share to Cambodia are hardly surprising. (Source: Phnom Penh Post)