AsiaLIFE

Three years ago, AsiaLIFE wrote about the direction of tourism in the land of Angkor Wat. Back then the general consensus was that, in order for Cambodia to fully develop as a tourist destination, the whole country needed to be promoted, rather than over-emphasising its one true wonder. This month we have decided to revisit the debate. What has happened to tourism in the past three years and where does its future lie? Words by Mark Bibby Jackson.

Olivier Marchesin took up his current role as general manager of Exotissimo Travel in October 2008. During the month following his appointment, the financial crisis went global, fighting broke out on the Thai border over Preah Vihear, and Bangkok airport was closed. “The business was successful, I arrived and then the problems started,” he laughs. “It’s not a good promotion for me.”

Despite all these troubles–and you can throw the Red Shirt protests in Thailand, Icelandic volcanoes and Swine Flu into the melting pot–Exotissimo has not only managed to maintain its market share but even expects a possible 35- to 40-percent increase, in terms of bookings, compared to 2009. Why has this travel company prospered while so many others have struggled or even gone to the wall?

Marchesin attributes the company’s success at least in part to the way it handled the immediate crisis. “We did well in the Bangkok airport situation,” he says. “We even took care of other companies’ clients who were stranded at the time.” After that particular crisis was over, Exotissimo decided to review its overall strategy for seeking out new business.

Instead of cutting back, the company maintained its staffing level, and focused on improving the quality of service by sending its sales people off to develop new markets. As a result, Exotissimo managed to steadily grow its turnover and customer base in Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam in 2009, although there was a small dip in Cambodia. Since August 2010, Marchesin has seen a real pick-up, especially with regards to the number of Asian tourists. “We are in the right segment of the market today,” he says, referring to Exotissimo’s position as a niche travel agency. “People want to experience new things. We are constantly creating new products, coming up with new ideas.”

As examples, he cites incentive trips that include gala dinners at Beng Mealea where people dress up as Indiana Jones and Laura Croft, and back to nature stays in tents along Ream Beach. The company also plans to put up tents in a pagoda near Siem Reap so that travellers can experience life with monks, meet local farmers and even have cookery classes in local villages.

This is far removed from the traditional 2.5-day stay where tourists cram in the temples of Angkor, a plate of amok and an Apsara dance show before heading for the beaches of Thailand or Vietnam. And herein lies precisely the difficulty faced by the country’s tourism industry. To both tourists and tour operators Cambodia is still seen as an extension to a holiday in one of the neighbouring countries. Two days of culture in Angkor are followed by a few days on the beach–but not inside Cambodia.

“If you want to keep people longer in Cambodia, you need the coast,” says Marchesin. “If you want repeat visitors, you need the coast. If you want families with kids, you need the coast.”

Off to the Beach

There seems to be general consensus, at least among those interviewed for this article, that Cambodia’s status as a tourist destination in its own right, rather than as an appendix to neighbouring countries, depends on the development of its underutilised coastline. The current debate is as to what shape this development should take.

Didier Lamoot is clear on the subject.

“Ream is Phuket, Sihanoukville is Pattaya,” says the area general manager of the Accor hotel group in Cambodia. Lamoot sees a clear comparison with Thailand, where coastal development has been zoned to appeal to different segments of the tourist market.

In addition to next month’s launch of the Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra, the first five-star hotel to open in capital for years, Accor has further expansion plans in the south of the country. The French chain is due to open an MGallery Resort in Ream in 2013 on an 11-hectare plot of land close to the national park. The first part in a phased development by Ream Resort Development, this is just one of many concessions granted to developers around Ream, and on the many islands off Sihanoukville.

The attraction is understandable.

“Ream starts from zero,” says Dimitri Bouvet, general manager of Ream Resort Development, as he shows photographs of a pristine 800-metre beach and mature forest. Disagreeing with those who fear that such development might endanger the natural environment, Bouvet claims instead that, “tourism will help preserve the national park”. In his opinion, the resort will provide a vital source of income for local micro-enterprises by creating activities such as treks and fishing trips for the resort’s guests.

The proposed development of the nearby island of Koh Sramaoch is another potential example of tourism working in harmony with nature. “The development plan preserves 80 percent of the island,” says Bouvet. A canopy walkway above the forest makes preservation a powerful marketing point to lure prospective tourists. People won’t come to see trees if you chop them all down.

MGallery is not the only top-end resort due to open in the south of the country. Late next year, the 33-room Song Saa Resort will open on Koh Rung Island. And the bridge linking
Koh Puos (or Morakot Island) to the mainland near Sihanoukville should be completed in June 2011, according to the website of the investment group behind the island’s development. The group’s master plan includes the building of four luxury hotels as well as luxury apartments.

In the past, coastal development has suffered from a Catch-22 scenario. You build the infrastructure once the tourists start rolling in, but tourists can only come once the infrastructure is built. But with talk of flights from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville recommencing in January and resorts taking up to three years to construct, it appears that some developers are following Bouvet’s example and taking a leap of faith.

Bouvet believes the most sensible approach is for both infrastructure and resorts to develop together. Starting with what he considers a modest development of 11 villas and a 54-room hotel, the resort will target expats, as well as wealthy Khmers and Chinese, with start-up room rates as low as US$130. As regular flights to Sihanoukville Airport bring travellers in from Siem Reap and further afield, the resort can develop further.

The opening of the airport to international flights could well prove the green light for mass development of the islands off Sihanoukville, with many concessions having already been granted by the government. “We are waiting for the planes,” explains Bouvet.

Greater Flexibility

Not all agree with this approach.

Alexis de Suremain, owner of a chain of boutique hotels in Phnom Penh, believes that a more inclusive approach should be applied to the way the coast is developed.

“Everywhere in the world you have the guys selling a pizza alongside the Hilton,” he says. “In Cambodia there is not a single island owner who would allow a concession to sell ice cream along a beach. They’d just start laughing at you.”

De Suremain believes that traditionally “small operations test the destination” before the main operators move in. This has not happened in Cambodia, where those with land concessions are all seeking partners for a major development. “They want the Four Seasons,” he says.

Although this may have held back the development of independent travel to the coast, de Suremain admits it could also have proved a blessing in disguise. “The coastline has not been destroyed, opportunities are still available now,” he says, before adding that, “the authorities should let go a little bit and allow controlled development.”

Cambodia’s Edge

Perversely, the lack of development of Cambodia’s tourism industry is its greatest attraction.

Nathan Horton acts as a photography tour guide. He believes that the last few years have seen a sea change in people’s attitudes toward their holiday expectations. For those looking for a unique experience, Cambodia still has a real “edge” to it.

“Globalisation has brought with it a sense of sameness,” he says. “Here, people feel they are experiencing something different. The anarchy of Cambodia really appeals to people, whether they acknowledge it or not.”

While Horton’s tours include guidance on how to use a camera to best effect, he also encourages customers to engage with the environment before taking photographs. For him, the camera’s lens is a means of becoming more involved with the Cambodian people, rather than a barrier that prevents interaction. “You can’t take a photograph without engaging people on my tour,” he says.

Receiving more than 15,000 hits a month on his website, Horton often has numerous communications with his customers before they even enter the country. “The big obstacle is persuading people that they should see more of Cambodia than Angkor,” he says. “They come thinking that there is only Angkor and they leave wishing that they saw more of the villages.”

He is increasingly attracting more repeat visitors, namely those who only came to see Angkor, but are “charmed by the people” and return to experience more of the country. Like Marchesin, de Suremain and Lamoot, Horton thinks that Cambodia needs a network of international quality hotels in remote areas so that travellers can experience more of the country. Places like Terres Rouges Lodge in Ban Lung and La Villa in Battambang are the exception rather than the rule. By way of example, Horton says that there is no hotel in Pailin where he would feel comfortable putting up his customers.

Green Leaves

If the country is lacking a network of boutique or luxury hotels, could eco-lodges provide an alternative solution for opening up the country?

Janet Newman, owner of Rainbow Lodge, one of the country’s first eco-lodges, believes that ecotourism globally has become mainstream. She lists “backpackers, flashpackers, professionals, families, expats and retirees from all over the world”, as her client base. Cambodia has more to offer ecotourists than many other countries, according to her.

“I think the greatest advantage Cambodia has in terms of ecotourism is the variety of habitats and areas of interest it has in such a small country,” she says. “What other country can boast magnificent and still undiscovered temples, pristine beaches and islands, largely untouched areas of rainforest, rivers and mountains, indigenous tribes and prehistoric wildlife, and all within a few hours of each other?”

Newman recently attended a workshop in Koh Kong aimed at establishing community-based ecotourism sites in the area. The general consensus was to develop homestays, from which trips could be arranged to explore the surrounding countryside. It represents a good way of ensuring the local people profit from the advent of tourism and provides them with a vested interest in preserving the environment.

The community-based project at Chi Pat established by Wildlife Alliance is a good example of how this can work successfully, according to Newman. “More tourists are visiting and the community is doing well in terms of extra income and jobs,” she says.

Praising the example set by Stay Another Day, a publication by the German Development Agency GTZ aimed at promoting responsible tourism in Cambodia, Newman believes that the next step is to develop a national ecotourism network.

“The network of eco-lodges around the country would really bring together some great places for people to visit,” she says. “I regularly am asked for recommendations in other parts of the country and have recently put up maps and boards in my bar at Rainbow Lodge highlighting projects such as Chi Pat, the elephant project in Mondulkiri and even more obscure eco-ventures like Koh Pdao. This has been getting great attention.”

Open Skies

But it is not just ecotourism that needs a more integrated approach. The recent history of Cambodia’s tourism industry has lessons for the future. The unbridled development of hotels along the road from the airport in Siem Reap towards the main town has left a chain of half-built and unfilled buildings. Given the current level of flights into the country’s number one tourist town, it is simply not possible to fill all the available rooms, even at the peak of high season, according to Luu Meng, the president of the Cambodian Hotel Association. This kind of unregulated approach to the development of Sihanoukville’s islands could lead to a massive oversupply of rooms compared to demand.

Meng is realistic about the state of tourism in the country. “The trees now have green leaves, before it was just a dry tree,” he says, remaining upbeat about the future. To him, the forthcoming Leonard Cohen concert at the Olympic Stadium and the Asean Tourism Forum in January are positive signs that the country is attracting the attention of the international community. While praising the efforts of the Ministry of Tourism, Meng believes that that a greater emphasis should be placed on opening more flight routes to Cambodia from within the region. He sees no reason why there should not be direct flights from Bali to Siem Reap or from Jakarta to Phnom Penh for instance.

Although he agrees with the importance of developing the coastline, Meng believes that the country’s “unique and charming people” is its unique advantage. Having represented Cambodia in food festivals in South Korea, Brunei and Vietnam, as well as cooked with master chef Gordon Ramsay during the famous Scotsman’s recent visit to the country, Meng says that there was a “good response” from the international community to the country’s cuisine. “Beyond Angkor Wat, we should promote the cuisine, the culture and the people,” he says.

Final Lift-Off

Cambodia is a country waiting for the promised tourism explosion to finally lift off. With pristine beaches, protected forests, a charming people, untested cuisine and a raw edge, Cambodia has a lot to attract both independent and group travellers. What the country lacks are the flights to bring tourists here, and quality rooms to accommodate them once they arrive.

Red shirts, global recession and virulent flu strains permitting, Cambodia’s tourism industry might just be set to enter a period of massive expansion. If this happens, the government has a tricky balancing act to perform. On the one hand it needs to help develop tourism through granting concessions and providing the necessary infrastructure, while on the other it must preserve the charm of Cambodia that makes this country unique. This is no easy task.

Referring to the country’s current tourism campaign, Newman sums it up well, “unless we protect the ‘Wonder’ that is the people, environment and wildlife, there is no ‘Kingdom of Wonder”.