PHNOM PENH, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia attracted a total of 5.57 million international tourists in 2025, down 16.9 percent from 6.7 million in the year before, said a Ministry of Tourism report released on Tuesday.

Vietnam topped the chart among the foreign tourist arrivals to the Southeast Asian country in 2025, followed by China and Thailand, the report said.

Some 1.22 million Vietnamese visited Cambodia in 2025, down 8.8 percent year-on-year, while 1.2 million Chinese traveled to the kingdom, up 41.5 percent, the report said, adding that roughly 1 million Thais came to the country, down 52.4 percent.

Thong Mengdavid, deputy director at the China-ASEAN Studies Center of the Cambodia University of Technology and Science, said the overall decline in international tourist arrivals reflected both regional economic slowdowns and intensified competition from neighboring destinations.

"The Cambodia-Thailand border conflict is also one of the reasons for the decrease in international tourist arrivals to the kingdom," he told Xinhua. "The drop also highlights lingering challenges in air connectivity and destination diversification."

Tourism is one of the four pillars supporting Cambodia's economy in addition to garment, footwear and travel goods export, agriculture, and construction and real estate. ■