Cambodia’s tourism sector is feeling the ripple effects of the Middle East crisis, with disrupted air routes and rising costs reshaping visitor flows and forcing operators to rethink their strategies.
“Cambodia is one of the more exposed destinations because our direct-flight network is thinner than our neighbours,” said Ho Shyn Yee, board member of Smiling Gecko Singapore, which has a farmhouse resort in Cambodia’s Kampong Chhnang province, pointing to the country’s reliance on Gulf transit hubs. “The most visible shift is in the geographic source markets.”
European travellers, who traditionally dominated Cambodia’s cultural tourism circuit, are being hit hardest. “These European travellers typically transit through the Gulf states, specifically Doha, Dubai or Abu Dhabi. With those hubs disrupted, the European share of arrivals has compressed across the country,” Ho added.
Since February, the impact is evident. For example, Angkor Enterprise recorded a 32 per cent year-on-year drop in foreign visitors to Angkor in 1Q2026, with revenue down 30 per cent.
However, Ho said this has resulted in a transition, with regional markets now gaining ground.
“What we’re also seeing is a shift in geographic mix, with more regional travellers from Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam,” Ho said, noting a difference in travel styles.
“Longhaul European guests historically spent more per stay, stayed longer and booked further out. Regional guests don’t replicate those economics.”
Additionally, booking behaviour is shifting. Ho shared that while enquiries at Smiling Gecko are “holding up reasonably well”, conversion to confirmed bookings has “weakened”. She attributed this to higher airfares and longer, less reliable routes, which “dampen confidence”.
“For many travellers, the question has shifted from ‘when do we book’ to ‘do we go this year at all’?”
She added that Smiling Gecko is also seeing shorter booking windows and more cautious decision-making. “European guests who used to lock in six months out are now sitting closer to eight to 10 weeks from travel, waiting on news before committing.”
Ho also noted that in South-east Asia, destinations are increasingly eyeing regional markets; however, Cambodia faces constraints. “Domestic tourism can soften the blow, but it cannot fill the hole left by longhaul compression,” she opined, citing inflationary pressures and limited disposable income.
The crisis is also impacting Smiling Gecko’s humanitarian model, which relies on tourism revenue to fund its key social programmes. “Revenue from the Farmhouse Resort flows directly into the humanitarian programmes,” Ho said, adding that any dip in occupancy has immediate consequences.
“A school year cannot pause because European bookings have slowed, and similarly a vocational apprenticeship cannot be rescheduled to next quarter.” If the downturn continues, she said the organisation may need to rely more heavily on donors to bridge funding gaps.
Ho that the Middle East crisis differs from Covid-19, when travel demand collapsed entirely. “Travellers want to come to South-east Asia, the intent is there, but the plumbing between origin and destination has broken in places,” she said.
However, she pointed out that both crises have exposed a repeated weakness. “Heavy dependence on a small number of transit hubs and a narrow band of longhaul source markets.”
Looking ahead, Ho predicts lasting changes.
“The connectivity disruption itself is temporary (but) the underlying dependency on Gulf hubs is now a visible and named risk,” she said, adding that while routes may normalise, changing traveller habits could remain in the longer term.
