Cambodia earns $2.5 billion from tourism in 2013

Cambodia earned $2.5 billion from the tourism sector last year, a senior government official said Monday.

Sok An, head of the Office of the Council of Ministers, said the number of foreign tourists to Cambodia has been steadily increasing from only around 120,000 in 1993 to more than 4.2 million in 2013, most of them visitors to Cambodian cultural heritage sites such as the Angkor Wat temples.

Last year's income from tourism accounted for around 16 percent of the nation's gross domestic product and provided jobs directly to about 400,000 people, Sok An said.

The Cambodian government hopes to attract 6.5 million foreign tourists to the country in 2018 and earn $4 billion in income from tourism, providing jobs directly to about 650,000 people.

Sok An made the statement at the celebration of the Cambodian New Year at Angkor Wat temple.

==Kyodo