PHNOM PENH, May 3 (NNN-AKP) – Cambodia’s famed Angkor Archaeological Park, attracted 33,205 foreign visitors in the first four months of this year, up by 633 percent year-on-year, the state-owned Angkor Enterprise said, yesterday.
The site made a gross revenue of 1.35 million U.S. dollars from ticket sales, during the Jan-Apr period, an increase of 622 percent from a year earlier, it said in a statement.
In Apr alone, the Angkor Archaeological Park received 13,365 foreign visitors, earning 537,000 U.S. dollars from ticket sales, it said.
Officials attributed the tourist recovery to the country fully reopening its borders to vaccinated travellers, without quarantine since last Nov.
“Now, the Angkor attracts about 400 foreign tourists a day, a gradual increase from only 70 per day, during the pandemic in the past two years,” tourism ministry’s secretary of state and spokesman, Top Sopheak, said.
Prior to the pandemic, the site received up to 9,000 international visitors a day, he said.
Located in the north-western Siem Reap province, the 401-square-km Angkor Archaeological Park, inscribed on the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1992, is the country’s most popular tourist destination.
Long Kosal, deputy director-general and spokesman for the Apsara National Authority (ANA), said that, given few visitors during the pandemic, the ANA had taken the opportunity to do renovation, maintenance and gardening work in the Angkor Archaeological Park.
“Now, the Park is ready to welcome all tourists from around the world,” he said. “As our country reopened its borders to fully vaccinated travellers without quarantine, I believe more international tourists will spend their holidays visiting the Angkor in the near future.”
Prior to the pandemic, the site attracted up to 2.2 million foreign visitors in 2019, making 99 million U.S. dollars in revenue from ticket sales.– NNN-AKP
