Thursday,Sep 14,2006
Barun Roy: Cambodia bets big on tourism http://www.business-standard.com/opinionanalysis/storypage.php?tab=r&autono=104609&subLeft=2&leftnm=4
ASIA FILE
Barun Roy / New Delhi September 14, 2006
A mix of culture, entertainment and improved infrastructure has put the country back on the tourist map.
More than 1.4 million tourists visited Cambodia last year and at least 1.1 million of them visited Angkor, despite the bad roads. The government expects total annual arrivals to reach 1.9 million this year, and 3 million by 2010. For a country whose tourism, practically speaking, is no more than six years old - three, to be more precise - this is a remarkable achievement and should leave one in no doubt that Cambodia is finally on its way.
The SARS outbreak in 2003 was the latest in a series of calamities that ravaged the country and its tourism for nearly three long decades. This was the period of death and trauma under the notorious Khmer Rouge, of war and occupation by Vietnam, of years of UN peacekeeping when safety was still fragile and land mines kept popping all over the place to kill and maim. Some 465,000 tourists still braved the odds to visit in 2000 and things were just beginning to look up when SARS injected a fresh bout of scare.
Now that's almost forgotten. Peace and stability have returned and are holding, the mines have been largely removed, Vietnam is now a trusted neighbour, relations with Thailand are back to normal, the nations of the Greater Mekong Sub-Region are in an extraordinarily cooperative mood, foreign investments are creeping in, and the government seems at last to have got its priorities right. Since improving the physical infrastructure is a must for any effort to improve the economy - and tourism - Prime Minister Hun Sen has committed his administration to building better roads and airports, expanding communications facilities, generating more electricity, and developing urban areas.
The task isn't easy, given the extent of damage during years of civil strife, but the work is well underway. By and large, travellers to Phnom Penh or the Angkor temple complex don't complain of muddy and rutted roads anymore. Siem Reap is no longer a town out in the boondocks and a new terminal has just been opened at its international airport.
"Airports and tourism are inextricably linked," said Cambodian Tourism Minister Lay Prohas while opening the new terminal. A private French-Malaysian company, Societe Concessionnaire des Aeroports, has the contract for Siem Reap's modernisation and similar contracts, running through 2040, for Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville airports as well. In the next two years, Sihanoukville, which handles only private jets at the moment, will be able to accommodate flights from Vietnam, China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Laos.
Angkor, the famed 12th century temple complex clustered within a 10-km radius and regarded by some as mankind's noblest homage to the divine, is, of course, at the heart of the Cambodian revival. A two-month international festival, Angkor-Gyeongju World Cultural Expo, jointly sponsored by Cambodia and South Korea and starting in November, is expected to bring in at least 400,000 additional visitors, and the government is making special arrangements to buy 50 MW of electricity from Thailand to boost supplies at Siem Reap. Soon thereafter, an international Angkor photography festival is supposed to bring in more visitors.
Siem Reap has grown nicely enough to cope. Its Yellow Pages lists 127 hotels, ranging from budget to super-luxury, and almost every big hotel has an in-house casino. Many of these are huge, resort-style establishments with spas, sprawling swimming pools, nightclubs, and a wide variety of restaurants. It's not anymore like before when tourists tired out doing the exacting Angkor circuit had little else to do to relax and unwind. Today, Siem Reap is a destination in itself, complete with bars, massage parlours, Internet cafes, and ethnic shopping. And, as an added attraction, a 125-hectare, 18-hole, and 72-par golf course has opened just 23 km outside of Siem Reap and a second one is in the making.
A welcome mix of culture and entertainment seems to be shaping up the future of Cambodia's tourism. Understandably, Siem Reap will continue to bite off the biggest chunk of the traffic volume, but the authorities believe Phnom Penh's time has come as river cruises on the Mekong and adventure trips to Tonle Sap, south-east Asia's largest freshwater lake and a UNESCO biosphere immensely rich in biodiversity, gain in popularity. And there's a bet on Sihanoukville, too.
Sihanoukville is Cambodia's Pattaya on the Gulf of Thailand, blessed with at least 35 km of fine, white sand beaches girdling the peninsula. It has emerged lately as a major seaside holiday destination and competition in its hotel sector is on the verge of becoming red-hot. Given the common tourism programmes in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region and a decision by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to allow up to two-week visa-free entry for Asean nationals travelling within the bloc, it's only a matter of time before Sihanoukville joins the big league of Cambodian tourism.
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