Cambodians spent about $600 million abroad last year, state media reported yesterday, while official figures showed a 20 percent annual increase in outbound tourism.

Tourism Minister Thong Khon estimated that Cambodians travelling abroad spent $600 million in 2016, state news agency AKP said, citing an unnamed local media source.

At the same time, Cambodian outbound tourism grew to 1.4 million in 2016, up from 1.2 million the previous year, according to Ministry of Tourism’s annual figures.

Ho Vandy, deputy secretary-general of Cambodia’s National Tourism Alliance, attributed growing incomes in the Kingdom for both the increase in outbound tourism and higher travel spending.

He added that Cambodians also benefitted from better air connectivity, particularly for regional destinations.

“Firstly, people have more income, and they run more of their own businesses or have more salary,” he said.

“Secondly, there a lot of carriers connecting Cambodia, both low cost and high cost, and they often have big promotions for travelling abroad.”

Cambodians mainly travel by air or road to Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore and Malaysia, Vandy said.

Travel by road is popular. The majority of international road travel was cross-border daytrips to Thailand, he added.