• Society

The 8th River Festival Expected to Bring One Million Visitors to Siem Reap City 

• By Zul Rorvy
• February 29, 2024 5:00 PM

SIEM REAP — The 8th River Festival, which will take place in Siem Reap city on March 16 and 17, is expected to attract one million visitors. 

Prime Minister Hun Manet and his wife will attend the opening ceremony of the event that will take place along the Siem Reap stream and Pub Street in Siem Reap city, said So Mara, secretary of state at the Ministry of Tourism, during a press conference on Feb. 28.  

“Our budget [for the event] is about 450 million riel, or roughly $110,000, which is three times less than for the Sea Festival,” he said, referring to the event that was held in Kep province in December 2023. 

The Cambodian government was able to invest that amount of money to organize the festival due to support provided by the private sector, Mara said. 

Held on the theme of “[t]he River for Peace and Development,” the event will include a series of activities ranging from art events, concerts featuring national and international artists, fireworks as well as tourism-product exhibitions, a Mekong Food Booth and so on. 

The festival will help the tourism sector in Siem Reap province and the other provinces in the region, and also promote the uniqueness of the Mekong Subregion, Mara said.

The river festival has been held in several provinces since 2015 to help attract national and international tourists to the areas along rivers in Cambodia to help improve the lives of people of these regions.

This event took place in Kratie in 2015, Stung Treng in 2016, Kampong Cham and Tbong Khmum in 2017, Kandal in 2018, Kampong Chhnang in 2019, and Battambang in 2020.

The festivals were postponed in 2021 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Then in 2023, this event was held in Kampong Thom province, attracting around 400,000 tourists in two days.

 

Originally written in Khmer for ThmeyThmey, this article was translated by Nhor Sokhoeurn for Cambodianess.