Cambodia & Tourism: H.E. Huot Hak: “attracting over 7 million foreign tourists by 2025”

Following a “satisfactory year in 2024, which saw foreign tourist arrivals exceed expectations’, the Ministry of Tourism has set itself the ambitious target of attracting over 7 million foreign tourists by 2025”.

H.E. Huot Hak, Minister of Tourism

The Ministry has established a strategic plan to attract up to 7.2 million or 7.5 million foreign tourists in 2025,’ said H.E. Huot Hak, Minister of Tourism, at a conference on tourism promotion and the fight against fake news held on January 15 at the Ministry of Information.

Cambodia welcomed 6.7 million international tourists, an increase of 22.9% compared to 2023 and 1.4% compared to 2019, the period before the spread of COVID-19.

With the ambition of attracting more foreign tourists to Cambodia, the ministry will prioritise key tasks, including developing a detailed action plan, ensuring the plan is implemented effectively and responsibly, and continuously monitoring and evaluating tourist arrivals, he said.

The Ministry of Tourism has tasked its various working groups with preparing strategies to increase the attractiveness of the Muslim tourism market in response to trends and the ever-increasing size of the Muslim tourism market.

“The Ministry aims to eliminate the traditional ‘low season’ in Cambodia, striving to maintain a steady influx of tourists throughout the year,” he added.

Currently, Cambodia has two distinct tourist seasons - a low season from April to September and a high season from October to March.

To make life easier for travellers and tourists coming to Cambodia, the Royal Government has asked the relevant ministries and institutions to improve and streamline visa issuance procedures through the e-Visa and e-Arrival systems into a single ecosystem.

The Royal Government has recently adjusted visa fees by reducing the price of electronic visas (e-Visa) for tourist (T) and regular (E) types. The price of the tourist type visa (e-visa T) is being reduced from 36 to 30 US dollars, while the price of the regular type visa (e-visa E) is being reduced from 42 to 35 US dollars.

With the AKP