Some 2.1 million tourists visited Cambodia last year, marking an 6.0 percent rise over 2007 but falling short of the government's target of 2.3 million visitors, Tourism Minister Thong Khon said Sunday, citing the global financial crisis and ongoing political turmoil in Thailand - a major tourist gateway to Cambodia - as reasons for the slowdown. Still, he said the Kingdom's arrival figures were likely to increase by at least 5.0 percent  this year. "We are targeting tourists from countries not [badly] affected by the economic downturn," he told the Post. Cambodia had hoped to see 2.3 million arrivals this year, Thong Khon said. He had said earlier that the Kingdom would try to attract more Chinese and East Asian visitors to offset the decline in tourists from Western countries.