The Ministry of Tourism (MoT) on Tuesday announced that the Cambodian People Party's (CPP) election campaign may have led to a drop in local tourists.

According to a report from the Phnom Penh Department of Tourism, from July 3 to 9, there were 286,959 visitors across the nation. This comprised 250,887 local and 36,072 foreign visitors.

The MoT said that the number of visitors decreased by 6.38 percent compared to the previous week. This marked an 8.11 percent slump in national visitors, while international arrivals increased by 7.77 percent.

Compared to MoT's previous report, the number of local tourists decreased by 22,168 compared to the report from June 26 to July 2, when 273,055 tourists were recorded.

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The MoT said that the decrease in local visitors is possibly due to large numbers of government officials and CPP members being busy with the election campaign, so they have been unable to travel.

MoT Spokesman, Tob Sopheak, told Kiripost on Tuesday, “I want to confirm that the decrease in local tourists is normal. It always happens for several reasons, and the election campaign is a part.”

Sopheak added that many people, not only the CPP but other opposition party members, are busy with their respective campaigns. He said, “The current report doesn’t include those who went to many places and slept there for election activities. They are also called tourists. Therefore, if we count them, the result would be more.

“It is the rainy season, so people may also have concerns about travelling to many places, and, sometimes, Cambodian people have their own reasons not to go anywhere. These may be other reasons local visitors decreased this week,” he said.

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Sopheak added that tourists are people who move around and spend money for their daily needs. Therefore, those involved in election campaigns should be included in the figures as they are promoting and helping the tourism movement.

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