Is it on track for Cambodia to open its doors to tourists in November?

With Phnom Penh becoming Southeast Asia's most vaccinated city, the Ministry of Tourism and other related sub committees are working to develop a workable plan within Cambodia's tourism and investment sectors, with the goal of reopening borders to fully vaccinated international travelers by November this year.

Cambodia's tourism ministry recently declared that fully vaccinated overseas tourists with proof of vaccination could enter Cambodia as early as November 2021. To make travel easier, Cambodia is considering reducing or eliminating the 14-day quarantine policy for fully vaccinated tourists, with the exception of certification demonstrating a negative COVID test 72 hours prior to travel and another negative COVID test upon arrival at Phnom Penh International Airport.

Cambodia is currently the second most vaccinated country in Southeast Asia, after Singapore, with over 70% of the country's 16.5 million inhabitants having been vaccinated, with citizens in the capital Phnom Penh having already received third booster doses.

By the end of September, the country expects to have achieved herd immunity, with 75 percent of the population having received two doses of the vaccine. Beginning in August, the Cambodian government began immunizing children above the age of 12.

Cambodia closed its borders to travelers in April 2020 in an effort to stem the spread of COVID-19. Last year, there were no deaths and only about 400 cases, most of which were imported and intercepted at the border.

However, in February of this year, coronavirus began to spread across the country, prompting a two-month nationwide lockdown. Cambodia was released from martial law in June, and since then, efforts have been made to vaccinate the populace through the country's mass vaccination program.