Angkor to see 2.8 million visitors this year

A familiar story about the overcrowding of tourists at Angkor. This year, the archaeological park will expect to see 2.8 million visitors.

photo credit: UnorthodoxY

Cambodia: commercial overload at Angkor Wat
Global Post, 11 September 2011

Angkor Wat’s magnificence has endured nature, invading armies, artifact bandits and occupation by Khmer Rogue communist guerillas.

But nearly a millennium after the 12th-century temple’s creation, it faces its greatest threat yet: millions of tourists marching upon its stones and pawing at its intricate stonework with greasy hands.

Tourism is exploding at Angkor Wat, a world of sandstone ruins considered mankind’s largest pre-industrial city. Jungled over for centuries, and more recently unreachable during Cambodia’s decades of war, the site now absorbs more than a million visitors each year.

…

After its long tourism twilight, Cambodia now expects 2.8 million arrivals throughout 2011. That’s double the number of arrivals in 2005 and it’s nearly 25 times more than the paltry 118,000 who visited in 1993.

Full story here.