PHNOM PENH (Xinhua): It is confirmed now that the Cambodia-Thailand border conflict has hurt Phnam Penh's coffers.
Cambodia attracted a total of 5.57 million international tourists in 2025, down 16.9 per cent from 6.7 million in the year before, said a Ministry of Tourism report released on Tuesday, reported Xinhua.
Vietnam topped the list of foreign tourist arrivals to the South-East Asian country in 2025, followed by China and Thailand, the report said. Thai tourists in Cambodia was also very high until conflict took centre stage in the last two months.
Some 1.22 million Vietnamese visited Cambodia in 2025, down 8.8 per cent year-on-year, while 1.2 million Chinese travelled to the kingdom, up 41.5 per cent from the previous year, the report said, adding that roughly 1 million Thais came to the country, down 52.4 per cent.
Deputy director at the China-Asean Studies Centre of the Cambodia University of Technology and Science, Thong Mengdavid, said the overall decline in international tourist arrivals reflected both regional economic slowdowns and intensified competition from neighbouring destinations.
"The Cambodia-Thailand border conflict is also one of the reasons for the decrease in international tourist arrivals to the kingdom," he told Xinhua.
"The drop also highlights lingering challenges in air connectivity and destination diversification."
Tourism is one of the four pillars supporting Cambodia's economy in addition to garment, footwear and travel goods export, agriculture, and construction and real estate. -- Xinhua
