Tourism Suffering Despite VN Influx: Official

28 Apr 2009 2118 | World Travel News

With the number of Vietnamese tourists increasing by 36 percent, the neighboring country made up the greatest proportion of visitors to Cambodia in the first quarter of this year, an official said Monday.

Vietnam has supplied 72,324 visitors between January and March, according to Kong Sopheareak, director for the Ministry of Tourism?s statistics and tourism information department. He attributed the increase to a December agreement that saw the neighboring countries remove visa requirements for each other?s citizens.

?They don?t need a visa, and the connection by land is easy,? Mr Kong Sopheareak said by telephone Monday. He added that he expects another border crossing to be opened in 2009, most likely in Kep province.

During the same period, the number of tourists from Laos skyrocketed by 143percent to 24,801. ?There is also a new connection from Laos,? Mr Kong Sopheareak said, referring to the new border crossing in Stung Treng province.

Visitors from former tourism leader South Korea have dropped dramatically since last year, falling by 35 percent to 53,939. Japanese tourists also dropped off by about 15 percent. Mr Kong Sopheareak attributed both drops to the global economic crisis.

Tourists from Thailand have also declined since last year, falling 26 percent to 26,440. ?I think it?s because of the political crisis in Thailand,? Mr Kong Sopheareak said.

Tourism from the US, Britain, France and most European countries has increased, Mr Kong Sopheareak said, but he added that tourism from non-neighboring countries decreased overall by 8 percent, mostly because of the drop in South Korean and Japanese tourists. Overall, tourism has declined 3 percent compared to the first three months of last year.

However, he said that he expects the tourism industry to rebound by the end of the year, and predicted an overall 2 percent increase in tourists for 2009.

The increase in tourists from Vietnam and Laos could mean a change in where tourists are staying and for how long, hotel workers said Monday.

A manager at the four-star Apsara Angkor Hotel in Siem Reap city said that the number of guests at his hotel declined by about 50 percent in the past year.

?More Vietnamese visitors come to visit Siem Reap, but they cannot afford my hotel,? he said.
Sok Khim, a receptionist at the Monoreach Angkor Hotel in Siem Reap, said that the number of Vietnamese visitors had increased by about 10 percent compared to last year.

?I know Vietnamese tourist numbers are higher than last year,? he said, ?but Vietnamese stay just a short time ? two or three days ? not like European tourists.?

Ho Vandy, co-chair of government-private sector tourism working group, said the changing balance of visitors represents an opportunity for Cambodia to extract bigger profits from tourism.

He said that Korean tourists don?t always contribute to the local economy because ?Koreans try to spend more with Korean business people in the country,? he said.
For now, Mr Ho Vandy said, visitors from neighboring countries seem to spend more money at local businesses than Korean tourists do. ?But we don?t know in the future how it will be,? he added.

Sourced = Cambodia Daily