Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism says the country’s expanding economy is enabling more Cambodians to travel overseas this year.

Khmer Times quoted the ministry’s department of statistics and information director, Kong Sophearak, saying there had been a 26% growth in overseas travel over the first half of the year.

Outbound travel during January to June, this year, reached 699,654 trips, an increase of 26.5% from 533,014 during the same period, last year.

Cambodia’s National Tourism Federation general secretary, Ho Vandy, noted the average income of Cambodians was increasing and this was reflected in more leisure travel bookings to neighbouring countries.

“Cambodians are now travelling for leisure, while before it was mainly overseas travel for business, studies or medical check-ups,” he said.

“There are more direct flights on low-cost airlines and within the ASEAN region there are no visa requirements… These are the key factors that are encouraging Cambodians to travel to neighbouring countries.”

Last year, 1,194,018 Cambodian travellers made outbound trips up 24.9% from 955,909 in 2014, according to the ministry’s data.