via Khmer Times, 02 July 2019: The decline in ticket sales has been fairly consistent for this year so far (see here, here and here). The drop has been attributed to increased regional competition.
Cambodia earned $55.7 million in revenue from the sale of tickets at Angkor archaeological park in the first half of 2019, a 9 percent decrease compared to the same period last year, according to figures from Angkor Enterprise.
The number of tickets sold at the park saw an 8 percent decrease from January to June, with just over 1,244,000 foreign tourists buying passes, Angkor Enterprises said.
Ngov Sengkak, director of Siem Reap’s tourism department, said new tourism destinations in the country may be driving traffic away from the Unesco-listed temple complex.
Source: Sales of Angkor complex tickets down nine percent – Khmer Times
Why hasn’t the Cambodian government considered the argument that tourism arrivals are down due to the recent spike in numbers of tourists, making the actual experience of visiting Angkor a much less less emotionally powerful experience, due to the line-ups and the crowded atmosphere?