The number of Chinese tourists to Cambodia increased 41.5 percent year-on-year in the first four months of 2024, according to a Cambodian Ministry of Tourism report released on Monday.

A total of 260,455 Chinese holidaymakers traveled to the Southeast Asian country during January-April this year, up 41.5 percent from 184,009 over the same period in 2023, the report said.

Chinese tourists accounted for 12.3 percent of the total international tourist arrivals to Cambodia, the report said, adding that the kingdom received a total of 2.11 million foreign visitors in the first four months of this year, up more than 22 percent from the 1.72 million international guests in the same period 2023.

China is the third-largest source of foreign tourists to the kingdom after Thailand and Vietnam, according to the report.

Cambodian Tourism Minister Sok Soken is optimistic that the number of Chinese tourists to the country will continue to rise thanks to the Cambodia-China people-to-people exchange year 2024 launched in January.

"The future of Cambodia's tourism is inseparable from the inflows of Chinese tourists and investors," he said in a speech at a joint martial arts performance titled "When Shaolin Meets Bokator at Angkor" held at the UNESCO-listed Angkor Archaeological Park in northwest Cambodia's Siem Reap province in April.

xinhua