Cambodia: SOSORO Museum Wins a Third Straight Travellers' Choice Award

The museum devoted to Cambodia's economic and monetary history confirms its status as one of Phnom Penh's must-see attractions, buoyed by fast-growing visitor numbers and a programme that shows no sign of slowing down.

@Sosoro

Three years, three trophies

It's become something of a habit. For the third year running, Phnom Penh's SOSORO Museum has been recognised with Tripadvisor's Travellers' Choice Award, placing it among the top 10 percent of attractions worldwide as rated by travellers themselves. The award is far from a one-off spotlight: it's calculated on a rolling twelve-month basis, weighing both the volume and the quality of visitor reviews.

After a first distinction earned shortly after opening, followed by a second the year after, this latest win confirms one thing above all: public interest hasn't cooled. The museum is on track to cross 200,000 cumulative visitors this year, a rise it credits to its interactive exhibitions and educational programmes.

A fast-growing crowd

The numbers speak for themselves. The museum passed the symbolic mark of 100,000 visitors a few years after opening, then crossed 150,000 by late 2025 — half of them students, as Cambodge Mag reported at the time of the exhibition on the rediscovered frescoes of the Silver Pagoda. Approaching 200,000 in 2026 marks a clear acceleration, driven by local visitors, school groups, and foreign tourists passing through the capital alike.

A gold coin at the origin of the project

Its full name is often forgotten: the Preah Srey Içanavarman Museum of Economy and Money. SOSORO is simply the Khmer acronym. The institution, entirely funded by the National Bank of Cambodia, opened in 2019 inside a 1908 colonial-era building that had served first as the mayor's residence and later as Phnom Penh's municipal headquarters, before being restored for the museum.

The name honours King Içanavarman I, who ruled the kingdom of Chenla in the early 7th century — and the story behind that choice is worth telling. In 2012, while the museum project was still in its early stages, a young archaeologist stumbled upon an ancient gold coin in a stall at Phnom Penh's Russian Market. Engraved with the king's name and that of his capital, Isanapura, the coin was authenticated by experts at the National Bank. That unexpected find would go on to become the centrepiece of the collection and would shape the museum's design for years to come, as its French-Cambodian co-director Blaise Kilian recounted to the outlet Focus Cambodia.

Twelve modules, two thousand years of history

The permanent exhibition spans nearly two thousand years, from the Funan era to the present day, taking in Angkor, the French protectorate and the Khmer Rouge period along the way — all told through the lens of money and the economy. Twelve thematic modules combine artefacts, touchscreens, games and projections: the museography clearly leans toward edutainment rather than the traditional glass-case display. Allow one to three hours for the visit, with an audio guide available in Khmer, English, French, Japanese and Chinese.

Temporary exhibitions keep the momentum going

The museum isn't resting on its permanent collection. Its latest exhibition, “Into the Light,” devoted to the long-lost frescoes of the Silver Pagoda, has already drawn 8,000 visitors at the halfway point, according to Cambodge Mag and Cambodia Investment Review. Made possible by royal authorisation and led by Professor Olivier de Bernon of the École française d'Extrême-Orient, the exhibition uses old glass-plate photographic negatives to digitally bring back to life paintings long thought lost since restoration work in the 1960s. Regular talks on far more contemporary topics — financial inclusion, digital payments, regional trade — further broaden the museum's audience well beyond history enthusiasts.

What the award actually means

The Travellers' Choice Award is no mere symbolic trophy. Tripadvisor grants it according to precise criteria: the volume and quality of reviews over a twelve-month period, a minimum average rating to maintain, and at least a year's presence on the platform. For a museum funded by a central bank, on a subject one might assume is dry — monetary history — winning this recognition three years running speaks volumes about its ability to win over an audience that was never a given.