Cambodia to receive 4.5 million tourists by 2015

PHNOM PENH, 17 June 2013 (The Cambodia Herald) -- Cambodia expects to welcome 4.5 million tourists by 2015, increasing from 3.5 million in 2012, thanks to its cultural properties, Prime Minister Hun Sen said.

“Undoubtedly, heritage and cultural tourism are playing a substantial part in this growth. Twenty years ago, when Angkor was inscribed on the World Heritage list, the number of international visitors were just 120,000. The figure then climbed to 3.5 million in 2012, with the expectation of 4.5 million by 2015,” he said at the opening of the 37th World Heritage Committee session, Sunday night.

He added that however, this requires that we increase our alertness. Heritage should in no way suffer from these gains. That is why our experts, together with UNESCO and Australia, have prepared a tourism management plan for Angkor and the region to ensure a balance between the imperatives of development and conservation needs based on conformity with the new concept of green development.

Over the past two decades, cultural and eco-tourism have become a pillar of equitable growth and played an instrumental role in poverty reduction in Cambodia where the poverty had dropped from 100 percent in 1979 to 19 percent in 2011, according to Hun Sen.

Hun Sen said the many outcomes that stemmed from this effort, included the inscription of Angkor archaeological site on the list of world heritage on December 14, 1992, the Royal Ballet of Cambodia and Khmer Shadow Theater (Lakhaon Sbek Thom) November 7, 2003 and November 25, 2005 respectively,  and considered to be an intangible cultural heritage for humanity, greatly enhancing the image of the Kingdom of Cambodia on the international stage.

In addition, another historical moment for our nation was marked when the sacred Preah Vihear Temple was inscribed on the World Heritage list on July 7, 2009.

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