PHNOM PENH: Cambodia welcomed 988,574 international tourists in the first two months of 2024, up 18 percent over the same period last year, a Ministry of Tourism's report showed on Mar. 21.

Thailand topped the sources of international arrivals, with 247,530, followed by Vietnam and China, with 185,385 and 109,990, respectively.

Some 42 percent of the total foreign tourists entered the country by air, up 33 percent. Tourism is one of the four pillars supporting Cambodia's economy, in addition to garment, footwear, and travel goods export, agriculture, and construction, and real estate. Number of Cambodian outbound tourists decreased by 3.9 percent to 262,580 during the two-month period, read the report.

The ministry reported the number of domestic tourist movement at 3.58 million, an 84 percent increase year-on-year. 813,813 of them were domestic foreign tourists. Cambodia is well known for its world cultural heritage sites, namely the Angkor Archaeological Park in Siem Reap province, the Preah Vihear Temple and Koh Ker Temple in Preah Vihear province, and the Sambor Prei Kuk Archaeological Site in Kampong Thom province.

Besides, the Kingdom has a 450-kilometre-long pristine coastline stretching across four southwestern provinces of Preah Sihanouk, Kampot, Kep and Koh Kong. Ministry of Tourism predicted that Cambodia would attract about 7 million international visitors to Cambodia by 2025, surpassing the pre-COVID-19 pandemic of 6.6 million in 2019.