Cambodia eyes big boost in Indian tourist arrivals with 'India Tourism Year' initiative

Cambodia is eyeing to increase Indian tourists’ footfalls by 3-4 times in the current year as a robust growth in India’s tourism sector presents huge potential for the Southeast Asian nation, a Cambodian tourism ministry official said.

”We have launched Cambodia-India Tourism year for the first time this year to tap the Indian market which has potential, as the country’s tourism is booming. We are witnessing a positive momentum and expect that there will be a lot more tourists from India. We expect to increase, maybe, 3-4 times in terms of the number at the moment that we have,” Cambodia’s Minister of Tourism Hul Seila told PTI over phone on the sidelines of Business, Leisure, Travel and MICE Tourism Exhibition 2024 (BLTM).

In 2023, Cambodia hosted 68,836 India travellers. The figure was over 91 per cent of the pre-Covid (2019) levels, he said. In 2019 Cambodia received 75,286 visitors from India.

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This year, in the first six months (January-June 2024) the number of tourists coming from India to Cambodia was around 32,000-33,000, around 17 per cent more compared to the figure of the same time a year ago, he said.

The participation in the event will enhance Cambodia’s tourism potential, promote the ’1st Cambodia and India Tourism Year 2024’ campaign, and strengthen tourism cooperation between Cambodia and India in line with the ministry’s ’BUILD + 3Ds’ strategic initiative, while also promoting the ’Visit Siem Reap 2024’ campaign to attract more Indian tourists and investors to Cambodia, he noted.

Seila said Cambodia has also launched digital campaigns and collaborated with travel partners to increase awareness of its various destinations.

”We are also collaborating with influencers to promote tourism in India to showcase what Cambodia has to offer as a preferred tourist destination,” he added.

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About connectivity, Seila said, currently there are four direct flights connecting India and Cambodia. Besides, IndiGo is likely to introduce one flight in November connecting Siem Reap with India.

”This will take the total number of direct flights between India and Cambodia to five per week and will help in attracting Indian travellers to our country,” he added.

For Indians Cambodia has visa on arrival facilities, however, the country also provides visa at its embassy based in New Delhi or issue e-visa, he said.

Cambodia mainly gets leisure, religious visitors and those who visit for medical treatment purposes, he said.

”However, we also want to showcase that we are very much capable of organising, arranging, big business events or MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) and weddings,” Seila added.