Increasing Chinese Visitors to The Kingdom

During the world economic crisis, due to the slowing down of western tourists, the tourism industry in the Kingdom was badly affected and led to temporarily laying off employees like the case of Allison Angkor Hotel.

This year the growth of Chinese visitors bring back to good situation for tourism industry. China is the second market among the top 5 outside ASEAN that come to visit Cambodia. Chinese visitors jumped 33.5% to 99,531 during the first 5 months in 2011 compared with the same period in 2010. Most Chinese target only Siem Reap while they think that the environment in Phnom Penh is similar to some Chinese cities. According to Tourism Minister H.E Thong Khon, the Kingdom projected to see the 200,000 of Chinese investors in 2011 (See PPS’s Tourism Report in Cambodia). Good communication with Chinese tour operators is a good benefit for hotel business since Chinese people tend to go to rest at hotels with Chinese speaking people.

Mainland China is not only the largest market for agricultural products but also for tourism sector. Anyway, it is estimated that in less than 15 years’ time, China will be producing around 100 million tourists.