Cambodia’s tourism sector faces a challenging path to recovery, with 2025 revealing problems that extend far beyond lingering COVID-19 effects. While the Ministry of Tourism projects cautious optimism for 2026, targeting 5.6 to 5.8 million international arrivals, the numbers tell a story of struggle, uneven recovery, and fundamental shifts in how tourists reach this Southeast Asian nation.
Cambodia welcomed 5.57 million international tourists in 2025, marking a 16.9% decline from the 6.7 million arrivals recorded in 2024. More critically, this figure remains 15.7% below the 2019 benchmark of 6.61 million—a stark reminder that six years after the pre-pandemic peak, Cambodia has not recovered its tourism footing.
The Ministry of Tourism reported approximately $3.7 billion in tourism revenue for 2025, representing just 3% growth despite the visitor decline. This modest revenue increase suggests a shift toward higher-spending travelers arriving by air, but it cannot mask the sector’s underlying fragility.
The first half of 2025 showed small gains, but the second half slowed dramatically, with the third and fourth quarters dropping by -38% and -37.2% compared to 2024. December 2025 epitomized this collapse, recording only 396,911 arrivals – 43.2% lower than December 2024.
In 2025, the country became more famous for the Triple Crisis: Scams, Borders, and Geopolitics than for its friendly people and beautiful tourist attractions.
This sharp deterioration erased months of progress. Tourism growth slowed to just 5.1% overall in 2025, a dramatic deceleration from the 13%+ growth achieved in 2024. What caused this collapse?
Thourn Sinan, president of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Cambodia Chapter, identified online scams as “a major obstacle to Cambodia’s economic development, not only to the tourism sector. They erode investor confidence and damage the country’s reputation.”
International media coverage throughout 2024-2025 highlighted Cambodia as a hub for sophisticated online scam operations—often involving human trafficking victims forced to operate romance scams, cryptocurrency fraud, and other digital crimes from compounds in Sihanoukville and border areas. These reports devastated Cambodia’s image, particularly in key source markets like China and Korea.
Korean tourists reduced significantly after a case involving a 22-year-old South Korean university student who was found dead in Cambodia after being a victim of a human trafficking and online scam network. The scene caught attention across all Korean internet channels at the time, and the incident caused public outrage in South Korea, prompting the South Korean government to issue travel warnings for parts of Cambodia and increase diplomatic pressure for stronger countermeasures against these transnational crimes.
The Cambodian government responded aggressively. According to immigration reports, Cambodia deported more than 13,000 foreigners from 66 nationalities in 2025 for legal violations, many associated with online scam activities. While necessary for long-term reputation recovery, this crackdown couldn’t immediately reverse the damage.
From the second half of 2025, two rounds of Cambodia-Thailand armed clashes affected tourism significantly. Many tour agencies reported rising cancellations, and tourists changed their destinations to Vietnam and Malaysia, benefiting neighboring Southeast Asian countries. Military tensions in border regions near Battambang and Siem Reap—Cambodia’s tourism heartland anchored by Angkor Wat—triggered travel advisories, crossing closures, and widespread cancellations.
These conflicts directly impacted land border crossings during what should have been Cambodia’s high tourist season (November-February), causing devastating timing for the sector.
The most dramatic structural shift was the 34.5% drop in ASEAN visitors, with land and sea arrivals falling by approximately -37%. This represents a fundamental breakdown of Cambodia’s traditional tourism model, which relied heavily on short-haul regional visitors arriving overland.
Thailand: Arrivals from Thailand fell by -52.4% to just over 1 million, devastated by border conflicts and crossing disruptions.
Laos: Visitors from Laos dropped by -60.7%, reflecting both border issues and Laos’ own tourism struggles.
Vietnam: Vietnam remained the top source market with about 1.22 million visitors but still declined by -8.8%. Even Cambodia’s most reliable regional market showed erosion.
This ASEAN collapse forced dramatic changes. Air arrivals became more common and accounted for 51.3% of total inflows, with strong increases at Sihanoukville International Airport (+144.5%). Cambodia transitioned—whether by choice or necessity—from a regional land-crossing destination to one increasingly dependent on long-haul air travel.
Amid widespread decline, the Chinese market recovered strongly, delivering 1.2 million visitors—a 41.5% increase over 2024, now representing 21.6% of all international arrivals. This resurgence followed visa facilitation, new direct flights, and targeted marketing campaigns.
However, this creates vulnerability: over-dependence on a single source market that can fluctuate based on Chinese economic conditions or bilateral relations.
While international tourism fluctuated wildly, domestic tourism provided stability. Cambodian visitors rose by 11.7% in 2025, with approximately 25 million domestic trips providing baseline economic activity for hotels, restaurants, and services—partially offsetting international downturns.
The Ministry of Tourism’s projection of 5.6-5.8 million international tourists in 2026 essentially predicts flat performance—minimal growth from 2025’s 5.57 million. This conservative target acknowledges ongoing challenges while hoping crisis conditions won’t worsen.
Factors Supporting Modest Recovery:
Factors Threatening Recovery:
Cambodia’s tourism sector stands at a crossroads requiring uncomfortable realities to be confronted:
The Old Model is Broken: Expecting ASEAN regional tourists to return to previous levels is unrealistic. Border tensions, improved domestic tourism in neighboring countries, and stronger regional competition mean Cambodia must fundamentally reimagine its tourism proposition.
Long-Haul Markets Demand Different Products: European, American, and Middle Eastern tourists expect different experiences and service standards than regional bus-tour groups. Cambodia must invest in upmarket positioning.
Beyond Angkor Wat: Over-dependence on Siem Reap creates vulnerability. Coastal destinations (Sihanoukville, Kep, Kampot), ecotourism, and adventure tourism must be developed as alternatives.
Reputation Requires Years: Even with aggressive scam crackdowns, rebuilding Cambodia’s reputation as a safe, trustworthy destination will take 3-5 years of consistent positive messaging and incident-free operations.
Cambodia’s tourism sector showed resilience in continuing operations through 2025’s multiple crises, but “resilience” shouldn’t be confused with “recovery.” The country remains significantly below pre-pandemic visitor levels, has lost its traditional regional tourism base, and faces reputation challenges that won’t resolve quickly.
The 2026 projection of 5.6-5.8 million tourists—essentially flat from 2025—reflects sober reality. Cambodia isn’t collapsing, but it’s not recovering robustly either. It’s treading water while trying to rebuild foundations.
True recovery requires years of sustained effort: continuing scam crackdowns, improving regional relations, expanding air connectivity, diversifying source markets, developing new tourism products, and investing in service quality. The fundamentals—Angkor Wat’s world-class heritage, beautiful coastlines, affordable prices, and welcoming people—remain strong. But converting those fundamentals into consistent tourism growth requires addressing the structural problems that 2025 exposed.
For Cambodia’s tourism sector, 2026 won’t be a year of triumph. It will be another year of hard work, modest progress, and hoping that this time, the recovery is real.
