The report, released on Tuesday, pointed out that due to a fall in tourist arrivals from affluent countries because of the global economic slowdown, the services sector will only grow 6.7% this year ‒ compared to 7.1% last year. According to the ministry report, the slowdown was across the board in all subsectors, except in transport and communications. Kong Sophearak, director of the statistics department at the Ministry of Tourism, agreed that there was a slowdown in tourist arrivals for the first half of the year. “The slowdown in tourist arrivals will affect the services sector, especially hotels and restaurants in Siem Reap ‒ since it is a main tourist destination with Angkor Wat as the centre of attraction,” said Sophearak. Last year, we had a slowdown in tourist arrivals but we managed to survive.

Source: Bangkok Post September 01, 2016 08:26 UTC