Cambodia: Apsara Authority Refutes $200M Revenue Claim

By Kuch Naren - July 13, 2013

The Apsara Authority, which manages the Angkor Archaeo­logical Park, issued a statement on Friday refuting a claim made by Cambodia National Rescue Party leader Kem Sokha about the amount of revenue that it collects from ticket sales. 

The letter, signed by Apsara Authority director-general Bun Narith, said that Mr. Sokha was quoted on July 9 while campaigning in Siem Reap as saying that the revenue from ticket sales for Angkor is almost $200 million per year.

“The Cambodia Na­tional Rescue Party has purposefully pretended to know the correct tourism figures in order to mislead about the number of tourists visiting Angkor,” it says.

The statement went on to explain that not all the 3,584,307 tourists to the country last year visited the temples, meaning the revenues collected at Angkor Park are actually much lower.

The Apsara Authority did not say what its revenues are, but pointed out that children younger than 12 and government delegations are not re­quired to purchase a ticket to enter the park.

The true number of tickets sold last year was 1,808,623, the authority said, and of those, 59.2 percent were single day passes, which cost $20.