Business owners -- many of them foreigners who were travelling through but decided to stay, captivated by the landscape and laidback lifestyle -- say they have noticed a steady increase in numbers.
"Despite the anti-Thai riots (in Phnom Penh in January last year), SARS, (the terror attacks in) America and the elections, my trade has increased in the last year as has everybody else's," says hotel and bar owner Richard Blackley.
Teng Huy's office puts the number of tourists who visited last year at just over 114,000, 6 percent less than 2002 due to the regional SARS outbreak, but for the first three months this year the figure jumped by 29 percent from last year.
Blackley, who moved here four years ago, says the town was once awash with small arms -- like the rest of the country -- but has normalized and authorities are making an effort to renovate the town.
"Infrastructure is being repaired, government buildings are being repaired, you can see improvements with parks and gardens. ... And the race for land on the beaches is phenomenal," he says.
"I'm extremely optimistic. Every day something new is being done."
Li Li, a Chinese technical worker on a hydropower plant in a nearby province, comes here every few months with a half dozen colleagues who are drawn by the seafood and scenery.
"Sihanoukville is very, very beautiful -- the water, the sky," he said after a beachside seafood feast.
"I think more and more people will come to Cambodia and here."
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