PHNOM PENH, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia attracted 988,574 international tourists in the first two months of 2024, an increase of 18 percent from 837,446 in the same period last year, said a Ministry of Tourism's report released on Thursday.

Thailand topped the chart among international arrivals to the Southeast Asian country during the January-February period this year, followed by Vietnam and China, the report said.

Some 247,530 Thais traveled to Cambodia, down 10 percent, the report said, adding that 185,385 Vietnamese and 109,990 Chinese visited the kingdom, up 41 percent and 38.5 percent, respectively.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said last Saturday that the country received 5.45 million international tourist arrivals in 2023, generating a gross revenue of 3.08 billion U.S. dollars.

"We hope the number of international tourists to Cambodia will surpass the pre-COVID-19 pandemic level by 2025," he said in a speech at a River Festival in Siem Reap province.

In the pre-pandemic era, the kingdom registered 6.6 million international visitors in 2019, earning 4.92 billion dollars in revenue, according to the Ministry of Tourism.

Hun Manet believed that the 2024 Cambodia-China people-to-people exchange year, together with the Visit Siem Reap 2024 campaign and the Cambodia-India tourism year, would help attract more international holidaymakers to Cambodia.

He added that the Chinese-invested Siem Reap Angkor International Airport, which officially commenced commercial operations last November, is becoming a potential magnet by facilitating the trips of international tourists to the UNESCO-listed Angkor Archaeological Park in particular and to Cambodia in general. Enditem

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