Cambodia’s famed Angkor Archeological Park received 400,889 foreign visitors in 2020, down 81.8 percent from 2.2 million in the year before, the state-owned Angkor Enterprise said in a press release issued Friday.
The park made $18.65 million in revenue from ticket sales last year, down 81 percent from $99 million a year earlier, it said.
In December 2020, the park attracted only 1,169 foreigners, a drop of 99 percent compared to the same month in 2019, it said.
The huge slump was due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that has forced the Southeast Asian nation to impose entry restrictions for all foreign travelers since March.
Ministry of Tourism secretary of state and spokesman Top Sopheak pinned the hope for tourism recovery on COVID-19 vaccines.
“If COVID-19 vaccines are available, we hope that the number of international visitors to the ancient site will start to rebound gradually,” he told Xinhua.
Located in northwest Siem Reap province, the Angkor Archeological Park, inscribed on the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1992, is the kingdom’s most popular tourist destination. Xinhua
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