"China is an important source market for Cambodia\'s tourism industry, and changes in China\'s COVID-19 strategy could contribute to Cambodia attracting more than 4 million visitors from abroad in 2023," a Cambodian official told China\'s Xinhua news agency. Data provided by a government official showed the increase was 75.4% in the 2022 tally.안전놀이터

"Given the close relationship between our two countries and peoples, we hope more Chinese tourists, businessmen and investors will come to Cambodia," the media reported on Wednesday.

He added that Chinese tourists could account for a quarter of arrivals this year. "We hope Cambodia will host at least 1 million Chinese tourists in 2023," a tourism spokesperson said.

According to officials, the Southeast Asian country welcomed 2.28 million foreign tourists in 2022, but only 106,875 of them, or 4.7%, were Chinese tourists.

Until December, mainland Chinese residents were advised by authorities to avoid non-essential international travel as part of their COVID-19 containment strategy, and it was difficult to obtain a departure visa for international travel, according to comments from investment analysts covering China\'s tourism sector.

In pre-pandemic deals in 2019, Cambodia attracted 6.6 million international tourists, generating $4.92 billion in revenue, contributing 12.1% to gross domestic product, according to data cited by Xinhua.

Cambodia traditionally has an important casino industry targeting athletes from neighboring countries, including countries where casino gambling is not legal.

China has been campaigning against "cross-border gambling" by mainland residents in recent years.

In November, Cambodia and China announced they had agreed to step up cooperation, including efforts to crack down on online gambling and telecommunications fraud.