Travel professionals recognized AngkorWat as the historical gems lying on its doorstep in 2015, winning praise from several big players in the travel industry.
The earliest indications that Siem Reap might soon become a popular travel destination appeared in November 2014, when Skyscanner announced its list of anticipated “Top holiday hotspots” for 2015. The Future Laboratory named Siem Reap the best location to watch in 2015 by the list, which analyzed three years of information from their website and trend data from corporations including Trendhunter and The Future Laboratory.
The predictions came true in March 2015 when Tripadvisor , the world’s giant website for travel reviews, named Siem Reap the Number One destination in Asia and Number Two destination in the World in their yearly Travelers’ Choice Awards.
Later on, in June of the same year, Trip Advisor revealed their Travelers’ Choice Best Landmarks in the World for 2015, none other than the iconic historical site in Siem Reap that appears on Cambodia’s flag, Angkor Wat.
The praise continued in July when Siem Reap was placed 3rd on Travel + Leisure Co. list of the World’s Best Cities as a result of the results of their readers’ poll for 2015. A yearly survey that is held both online and offline asks Travel + Leisure’s increasingly global readers to vote on the list.
The new “Ultimate Travelist” book was unveiled by Lonely Planet in August of the same year, which had been the top travel resource for many years. The upcoming book, which will be published in the same month, ranks and names 500 of the world’s “must-see” destinations and was created using the opinions of both internal and external travel writers and specialists in the business. The “Ultimate Bucket List,” as it is known, placed Angkor Wat in Siem Reap at the top of the list, above 499 other “best places on the planet.”
With all this fame, Siem Reap’s streets are getting crowded again, as the city has managed to maintain and recover its small-town charm despite suffering severe losses from the pandemic.
Those who want to see Siem Reap in its current state shouldn’t wait to make Cambodia their travel destination.
