Local and international tourists visit Neak Poan temple in Siem Reap province on January 1. Hong Menea
TripAdvisor recently named Siem Reap fourth on its top 25 trending destinations for 2023. The recipients were selected based on ratings and comments by travellers over the previous year.
Tripadvisor is a US-based online company which compiles reviews on destinations, hotels, restaurants and attractions across the globe.
Tourism experts predict that the announcement will lead to an increase in the number of foreigners who will visit the province this year.
Cuba was selected as the top trending destination for 2023, with Vietnam’s Hoi An city in second. Mauritius is placed third, just above Siem Reap.
With this proud congratulations on the good news, Ngov Seng Kak, director of the Siem Reap provincial Department of Tourism, expressed his pride in the award. He is optimistic that the review – combined with the government’s implementation of the 2021-2035 tourism master plan – will drive a steady increase in visitors.
“Through Tripadvisor’s assessment and our efforts in implementing the master plan, I believe that more foreign tourists will visit Angkor this year,” he said.
The ancient temple of Angkor Wat is generally seen as the main attraction of Siem Reap province. The world’s largest stone temple, it covers an area of 152.6ha, and was once the centre of a city of over one million inhabitants, and the seat of the Angkor Empire.
Thourn Sinan, CEO of B2B Travel and chairman of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Cambodia, welcomed the news of Siem Reap’s latest accolade.
He said it would benefit the tourism industry in Cambodia as a whole, but warned that the Kingdom’s tourism industry should not rest on its laurels.
“The tourism industry has many things to do, especially in terms of digital marketing and identifying target markets,” he added.
Sinan said it was important to remember that the Kingdom has more to offer than just Siem Reap, and it needed to communicate that to the world.
During the new year holiday, Siem Reap received more than 100,000 tourists, more than 15,000 of them foreigners, according to a report released by the Ministry of Tourism.
Sarah Firshein, the Head of Editorial at Tripadvisor, said travel started to regain popularity in 2022.
“Long-distance travel is returning. We are seeing many Americans excited to plan trips to Asia and the Pacific for the first time in many years,” she added.
According to Firshein, due to concerns about the Covid-19 pandemic, large cities such as Paris and London are less likely to feature in the plans of travellers, while smaller places like Alaska, Cuba and Siem Reap are attracting a lot of attraction.
