A large influx of holidaymakers is expected in Siem Reap over this year’s Water Festival, as the local tourism department reports a tally of more than 1.6 million tourists to the historically-rich northwestern province in the first nine months of this year.
Known locally as Bon Om Touk, the Water Festival falls from November 7-9 this year. The second day of the festival aligns with the date of the full moon on the Khmer lunar calendar month of Katdoek (or Kartika in Sanskrit), which is said to be when the long-cycle rice crop is ready for harvest.
From January to September, the Siem Reap provincial Department of Tourism logged 1,634,352 tourists to the province, versus the 126,719 it recorded during the corresponding period last year, confirmed a report obtained by The Post on November 1.
“National” and “international” tourists accounted for 1,500,200 and 134,152, respectively, up from 120,552 and 6,167 in the year-ago…
