Cambodia attracted 4.2 million foreign tourists last year

[geovalin]

Cambodia attracted 4.2 million foreign tourists last year, an increase of 17.5 percent over the previous year, according to government statistics released Friday.

A total of 4,210,165 foreign tourists visited Cambodia in 2013 against 3,584,307 in 2012.

In 2003, by comparison, Cambodia received only 701,014 foreign tourists, earning $347 million. Ten years later, earnings from the tourism sector shot up to $2.5 billion, according to the data.

In 2013, Vietnamese topped arrivals with 854,104 visitors, followed by Chinese with 463,123 and South Korean with 435,009.

Japanese tourists placed sixth with 206,932.

The statistics also showed that 871,646 Cambodians tourists traveled abroad last year.

Siem Reap Province, which is a gateway to the Angkor temples in northern Cambodia, received 2,237,286 foreign tourists last year, or 53 percent of the total.

==Kyodo

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/kyodo-news-international/140214/cambodia-attracted-42-million-foreign-tourists-last-ye