Local and international sightseers visit Angkor Wat to catch a glimpse of the sunrise in June. ANA
A total of 385,769 standard tickets for Siem Reap province’s Angkor Archaeological Park, the mainstay of the Kingdom’s tourism industry, were sold to foreign visitors in the first six months of 2023, amounting to $17,877,418, available in one-day, three-day and seven-day passes, Angkor Enterprise reported on July 5.
This marks 543.13 per cent and 638.71 per cent year-on-year jumps in terms of the quantity and value of tickets sold, but 71.57 per cent and 70.92 per cent decreases from the 1,356,961 tickets worth $61,472,347 recorded in the same time of record-breaking 2018, according to statistics from the state-owned enterprise in charge of Angkor income management.
Last month alone, 41,012 of these tickets were sold for $1,811,589, up 188.74 per cent and up 221.40 per cent in terms of number and value compared to June 2022, but down 10.37 per cent and down 10.96 per cent against May 2023, as well as down 72.80 per cent and down 72.04 per cent versus the 150,773 tickets worth $6,478,956 registered in June 2018.
The Angkor Enterprise website currently displays the prices of one-day, three-day and seven-day tickets for the main park area – which contains Angkor Wat – as $37, $62 and $72.
The enterprise also reported ticket sales for the Koh Ker area and Chong Kneas Tourist Port to the tune of $95,535 and $292,940 for the first six months of 2023.
Cambodians do not pay any of these entrance fees.
Angkor Enterprise was established in 2016 as a public administration institution under the technical jurisdiction of the Ministry of Tourism and the financial jurisdiction of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Angkor Tourist Guide Association president Khieu Thy told The Post on July 4 that foreign visitors to the temple park are mostly from ASEAN, and rather scarce, despite tourism ministry statistics indicating that that the number of international visitors this year has already crossed the two-million mark.
He asserted with confidence that tangible improvements in the world’s economic or political conditions would drive up the number of foreign tourists to the Kingdom.
Nevertheless, during his long time in the industry, Thy has adopted a wait-and-see stance on how the tourism situation develops over the course of the year, arguing that the high season typically begins at year’s end.
On July 3, Minister of Tourism Thong Khon announced that Cambodia is projected to receive at least seven million international visitors by 2025 – surpassing the all-time record of 6.611 million set in 2019.
He reported that the Kingdom welcomed a total of 2.57 million international visitors in the first six months of this year – equivalent to 77 per cent of the 3.338 million registered in the same time of 2019.
The minister noted that land, air and water modes of transportations accounted for 1.63 million, 0.91 million and 0.03 million of the total – compared to 0.898 million, 2.354 million and 0.087 million in January-June 2019.
He suggested that since early 2022, Thailand has emerged as the top source of tourists, followed by Vietnam, China, Laos and the US.
A visitor in the context of these statistics is a person travelling to the Kingdom, “staying at least overnight and not exceeding a specific period for leisure, recreation, business and other legal tourism purposes; and not relevant to the purpose of permanent residence or any remunerated activities”, as defined by the ministry.
Angkor Enterprise reported last year’s standard ticket sales for Angkor park, the Koh Ker area and Chong Kneas Tourist Port at $11,528,158, $90,450 and $165,308, respectively. Angkor ticket sales were down 90.12 per cent from $116,646,685 in 2018.
