The revenue earned by state-owned mail service provider Cambodia Post took a 47.91 per cent nosedive in the first nine months of this year, its director-general Ork Bora told The Post on Tuesday.

Covid-19’s devastating blows to the tourism and aviation sectors have, in turn, impacted the postal sector, which relies heavily on international tourist flows.

Bora said Cambodia Post registered more than $4.42 million in revenue during January-September, a far cry from the more than $8.49 million logged in the year-ago period.

On August 3, the company resumed limited express delivery after a nearly five month long Covid-19 hiatus.

Bora said the volume of mail received at the Cambodia Post since then has been around 50-60 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels.

“If Covid-19 lingers like this, Cambodia Post will lose out on profit. We estimate that during this time we’ve lost more than $1 million due to Covid-19,” he said.

He noted that there hadn’t been any sure signs of improvement in mailing volume. “The postal sector relies mainly on the influx of tourists … without any tourists, there won’t be any mail either,” he said.

Following its resumption of operations in August, Cambodia Post said it would ship mail and packages to some Asia-Pacific countries such as Australia, China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan), Japan, South Korea, Israel, Singapore, the UAE, Vietnam and Thailand.

Other destinations include European countries such as Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, the UK and Spain as well as North American countries, including the US and Canada.

The Kingdom welcomed 1,247,680 international visitors in the first nine months of this year, down 74.1 per cent year-on-year from 4,814,306 during the same time last year, the Ministry of Tourism reported.

Last year, the company netted $12,237,459, up 224.46 per cent from $3,771,598 in 2011.