PHNOM PENH, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Nearly one million Cambodians visited foreign countries last year, the Mekong Times newspaper said Thursday, citing the first ever Tourism Ministry report on Cambodian tourists.
Vietnam and Thailand were the most popular destinations, according to the report revealed Wednesday.
Kong Sopheareak, director of the Department of Statistics and Tourism Information at the ministry, said similar figures were expected this year.
"This indicates that Cambodia's economy and living standards have increased significantly," he added.
Cambodia, with a population of about 14 million, has never before compiled statistics about how many Cambodians make trips abroad.
However, Ho Vandy, president of the Cambodian Association of Travel Agents (CATA), opined "the outflow of Cambodian tourists visiting abroad does not provide benefits to Cambodia."
"We do not want Cambodian tourists to visit abroad as it can cause a loss of much revenue," he said.
"The government should develop tourism sites and resorts well like neighboring countries to curb the outflow of tourists and take in tourism revenue to further develop tourism," he added.
A CATA survey found that Cambodian tourists spend an average of 500 to 800 U.S. dollars per trip.
Vietnam and Thailand were the most popular destinations, according to the report revealed Wednesday.
Kong Sopheareak, director of the Department of Statistics and Tourism Information at the ministry, said similar figures were expected this year.
"This indicates that Cambodia's economy and living standards have increased significantly," he added.
Cambodia, with a population of about 14 million, has never before compiled statistics about how many Cambodians make trips abroad.
However, Ho Vandy, president of the Cambodian Association of Travel Agents (CATA), opined "the outflow of Cambodian tourists visiting abroad does not provide benefits to Cambodia."
"We do not want Cambodian tourists to visit abroad as it can cause a loss of much revenue," he said.
"The government should develop tourism sites and resorts well like neighboring countries to curb the outflow of tourists and take in tourism revenue to further develop tourism," he added.
A CATA survey found that Cambodian tourists spend an average of 500 to 800 U.S. dollars per trip.
4 comments:
If you look close at the numbers you will find that it is 1 million trips out of the country. Some people made 1oo trips out, but most Cambodians dont have passports. If their numbers are right , that means one out of every 16 Cambodians has a passport
A lot of the trips people taken are for smuggling and immigration processing because country like USA do not set up process in PPenh.
To want ot curb out going tourism is narrow minded. The idea was implemented in SRN under Sihanouk who was affraid that people see how the rest of the world progree ahead while the leader of their own country tried to keep them in the dark.
So go cambodian people. Go to see how free societies make their nation stronger and love their nation deeper. Do not just believe what the people in the government said. They may want you to be in the dark just like "frog in the well"
Nope, Khmer generally doesn't smuggled anything, only Ah Khmer-Yuon and Khmer-Oversea does that and blame everything on innocent Khmer people. You have to be blind as a bat, if you can't see this pattern by now.
this is a good thing that cambodians do go abroad because this is one way we can learn from others from around the world. traveling abroad can open one's eyes to the bigger and better world outside of cambodia, especially in ideas, concepts, business etc... as cambodia needs to develop our country by bringing in new invention, ideas, concepts etc., etc... i think traveling around the world is a great experience to have by seeing the world and to appreciate what the world can teach cambodia. it makes khmer people appreciate the world more as the world is bigger than your oyster as they say. so, really, i strong encourage more and more cambodians to travel and visit abroad when they can afford it, to see the world, i mean all over the world, so we can appreciate the beautiful of our planet. this kind of experience is really new to most khmer people, however,it is not unique to cambodia alone as the world evolve and changed this way as well. i also, encourage cambodian people to discover and learn about their own country, cambodia as well by traveling to the different provinces in cambodia and learn about our beautiful and unique geography so we, khmer people can learn to appreciate our own as well as the world beyond our borders. god bless cambodia and her beautiful khmer people.
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