Fewer Cambodians visit Vietnam

Fewer Cambodians visit Vietnam

Dao Loan

Foreign tourists are served Vietnamese tea at a welcome ceremony organized by the HCMC Department of Tourism at Tan San Nhat airport in HCMC. Around 834,000 foreigners visited Vietnam last month, up 20% year-on-year - PHOTO: DAO LOAN

In February, Cambodian arrivals numbered fewer 10,000, dropping 71.5% year-on-year. Overall, the number of visitors from the neighboring country totaled 23,000 in the January-February period, down 64% from the same period last year.

In 2011, 423,440 Cambodians traveled to Vietnam, rising by 66.3% against the previous year. However, the number has dipped sharply since 2012.

Most Cambodians come to Vietnam in their own trips through Moc Bai border gate in Tay Ninh Province. According to some travel firms in HCMC, some of them travel to Vietnam for medical treatment.

In recent years, more travel firms have dropped tours for Cambodian visitors due to low profit, and price undercutting. Lack of Cambodian-speaking tour guides, tourism promotion programs and tourism products is also to blame.

On the contrary, more Vietnamese have traveled to Cambodia in recent years. Vietnam is one of the top markets for Cambodia with more than one million visitors a year.

Also according to VNAT, except for the strong fall in Cambodian visitors, February saw good growth in many other markets. For instance, Chinese arrivals rose by 72.6% year-on-year to 219,000, Korean visitors over 33.9% to more than 142,000, Taiwanese tourists by 29.5% to 52,000, and Japanese travelers by 11.4% to 59,000.

In all, Vietnam welcomed around 834,000 foreign visitors last month, up 20% from a year earlier. The number in the first two months of this year was more than 1.63 million, a year-on-year increase of 16%.

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