The South Gate

The South Gate of Angkor Thom is one of five gates to the ancient city, and it is also the busiest. Even in the rainy season, there are always cars and buses queuing to enter the narrow gateway. Tourists usually walk over the causeway, admiring the gateway and reproductions of the heads of the gods and demons along the balustrade.

It is slightly amusing to see hordes of tourists crammed together, when only a few metres away they would be virtually alone. To avoid seeing the South Gate clogged with traffic and tourists, walk to the left down to the moat for the view shown in the photo. The traffic and people are hidden by the walls of the causeway and cattle can often be seen grazing by the water's edge.

Nearby are a couple of small temples - Prasat Bei with three towers, and Baksei Chamkrong, a 12 metre pyramid dedicated to Shiva. Its name means "the bird which shelters under its wings." This refers to the legend of King Yasovarman escaping from battle, being saved by a huge bird which hid him from view. Both these temples date from the tenth century.

Airbus Cuts 2009 Target For A380 Deliveries

European planemaker Airbus confirmed yesterday it had cut its 2009 delivery target for A380s by one aircraft to 13 planes and said it was maintaining its delivery forecast for 2010.

"In agreement with a customer [Singapore Airlines] we have moved the 14th aircraft [for 2009] by a few weeks from December to early 2010," spokesman Stefan Schaffrath said.

"We maintain our planning to deliver more than 20 aircraft in 2010 as announced," he added. Shares in parent EADS fell 0.5 percent in early trading, slightly lagging other leading stocks.

Airbus is shifting into a second automated production phase for the A380 known as Wave 2.

The first 25 aircraft had to be wired up manually due to industrial problems that pushed delivery of the world's largest jetliner back by two years.

"'We have just recently delivered the first Wave 2 aircraft and the second will follow very soon," Schaffrath said.

Siem Reap Airlines set to resume on all routes

Govt says the troubled line will resume its international flights and Phnom Penh-Siem Reap route - most likely in October.

Siem Reap Airways will resume international flights - as well as the domestic Phnom Penh-Siem Reap route - when it relaunches, most likely next month, a government aviation official said Sunday.

Sinn Chansereyvutha, director of the department of policy planning at the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA), said that the airline would again fly to Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong.

The airline started flying to Ho Chi Minh City in late October before it grounded all international flights from December 1 following a European Union ban imposed after an audit by the International Civil Aviation Organisation found Cambodia in breach of 107 standards.

As the only Cambodian airline at the time, it therefore decided to suspend flights, Terry Alton, Siem Reap Airways general manager, previously told the Post. He was unavailable for further comment Sunday.

"We do not have any more reasons to suspend Siem Reap Airways flights . because the company already has the necessary documents and has fulfilled technical requirements," said Sinn Chansereyvutha, adding that the government had approved a new two-year licence for the airline.
"We believe that Siem Reap Airways will start its official flights by November," he said.

News of the return of the troubled airline comes after the Cambodian government chose not to renew the licence for its owner, Bangkok Airways, to fly the Phnom Penh-Siem Reap route from October 25, a decision it announced to travel agents the same day, according to a company
statement. It did not give any further details on the suspension of its flights on the route in the announcement.

The government said the decision was made on the basis that Bangkok Airways had only been granted the route due to the suspension of Siem Reap Airways flights last year.

New national carrier Cambodia Angkor Air started the same domestic route at the end of July, and it now looks certain that two domestic carriers will compete on the Siem Reap-Phnom Penh route from the end of next month at the latest.

Relaunch date still unclear
Sinn Chansereyvutha said the exact restart date for Siem Reap Airways would depend on when the carrier was ready to fly again.

The airline had not posted news of its relaunch on its Web site by late Sunday.

Meanwhile, Bangkok Airways will increase the fuel surcharge on its international flights to and from Cambodia from October 1, it said in announcement, from US$15 to $20 per one-way flight. The airline said it would keep the fuel surcharge for domestic flights in the Kingdom at $12 per ticket from the same date until it stops flying between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.

The last flight on the route is scheduled to fly from the capital at 12:35pm on October 24.

Govt to stop Bangkok Air's domestic flights

Civil aviation body says that Thai airline will not have its agreement extended for Phnom Penh-Siem Reap route. The government will not renew its agreement with Bangkok Airways, under which the Thai-owned airline flies domestic routes, when it expires on October 25, a senior aviation official told the Post late Wednesday.

State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA) Secretary of State Mao Havannal said the decision was made to give a boost to the new national carrier Cambodia Angkor Air (CAA), which made its maiden flight on July 28.

"Now that we have our own domestic airline, Bangkok Airways will not be allowed to continue their flights when the agreement finishes on October 25," he said.

Bangkok Airways has been flying four flights daily between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap since taking over the route last November when its subsidiary, Siem Reap Airways, was grounded by the SSCA.

SSCA Cabinet Chief Long Chheng said Thursday that the body sent Bangkok Airways a letter last week informing it of the decision.

Bangkok Airways Acting Country Director Amornrat Kongsawat was not available for comment Thursday.

A representative of the airline in Bangkok who did not want to be named said she was unaware of the issue, but added that affairs in Cambodia did not come under her jurisdiction.

SSCA Director of Operations Kao Sivorn confirmed that the decision was a commercial one to support the new national carrier.

"Before, we allowed this airline to operate domestically because we did not have a local company, but now we have, so we will not let them continue," he said.

However, he added that the airline would be able to negotiate a code-share agreement with CAA so that its passengers could continue flying between the two destinations.

Mao Havannal also ruled out a return to the skies for Siem Reap Airways, saying it still did not comply with "the proper standards".

The airline, which was founded in 2000, was grounded last year amid concerns over safety standards and financial irregularities after an audit by the International Civil Aviation Organisation. The audit found that the airline did not comply with Cambodian airline regulations, including safety standards, and also raised concerns over the ability of Cambodian civil aviation authorities to enforce international safety standards.

A source within the SSCA told the Post in June the audit found Cambodia in breach of 107 international standards and said it would ban all local airlines if action was not taken, leading to the decision by authorities to take a tough stand against Siem Reap Airways.

The European Commission also banned Siem Reap Airways from operating in the European Union last year due to safety concerns, even though the airline did not offer service to Europe.
Soy Sokhan, an undersecretary of state at the SSCA who is in charge of all matters related to CAA on behalf of the government, said the end of Bangkok Airways agreement would "give us the chance to get more passengers".

Tourism arrivals rebounded in July, says govt

A 10 percent jump in tourism arrivals in July eroded losses over the first six months of the year, according to unofficial numbers released by Tourism Minister Thong Khon.

More than 163,000 people visited the country last month, he said, bringing arrivals for the first seven months of the year to 1,284,085, a 0.3 percent rise on the 1,246,685 million visitors through to the end of July 2008.

Figures for the first six months of the year show a 1.1 percent fall in visitor arrivals, compared with a year earlier, to 1,086,518. The figures include tourists and business travellers.

An increase in visitors from neighbouring Laos and Vietnam offset a huge fall in arrivals from South Korea, which was the single largest source country for foreign visitors in the early part of 2008 until the bottom fell out of the country's economy.

"The opening of tourism hubs, such as new border crossings and the new national air carrier, a lowering on tourism service prices and efforts to facilitate transport routes into Cambodia were key ways to draw tourists from the region, as well as those from European, during the [financial] crisis," Thong Khon said.

However, he warned that the majority of Vietnamese tended to visit Phnom Penh rather than Siem Reap, meaning the downturn in visitors from South Korea was still felt strongly in Cambodia's main tourism hub.

Accurate numbers were unavailable for July, but visitors from South Korea fell 33 percent year-on-year over the first half from 160,446 to 106,345. Arrivals from Vietnam were up 40 percent over the same period from 105,275 to 147,721, while Laotian visitors increased 141 percent to 52,708.
Thong Khon said arrivals from Vietnam were up 46 percent year-on-year in July.

"Vietnamese tourists still lead tourists from all other countries, followed by those from South Korea and America," he said.

Tourism figures show 79,657 Americans visited during the first six months of the year, marginally up on a year earlier, 70,183 Japanese, down 13.5 percent, and 234,439 Europeans, marginally down on the first six months of 2008.

Ho Vandy, co-chairman of the Government-Private Sector Forum's Tourism Working Group, said the slight recovery in July had been noticed. "[It's] a good sign for all of us who earn a living in the tourism sector, and we are not so concerned now about the slow months earlier this year," he said.

Ho Vandy is also the owner of World Express Tours & Travel.

Cambodia's Hotel Association (CHA) President Luu Meng said the number of bookings in hotels was increasing, indicating the recovery was the start of better times ahead. "We have received more reservations and bookings from people coming to stay and visit our country, mostly from Japan, Europe and America," he said.

Thong Khon said he was optimistic arrivals would expand between 2 percent and 3 percent from 2008, when 2.12 million people visited Cambodia.

Cambodia Sees $8 M Drop in Revenue After Visa Fee Waivers

Cambodia saw an $8 million decline in revenue last year after waving visa fees for five Asian nations, but the lost money would be recouped in more tourists visiting and spending inside the country, the Minister of Tourism said Sunday.

Minister of Thong Khon said the visa policy should fuel tourism in Cambodia and confirmed that the ministry is still planning on expanding the initiative to include Thailand next year. He said tourism arrivals picked up by 9 percent last month when compared to the same time in 2008.

“It is still good for small businesses,” the minister said of the strategy. “The Cambodian tourism sector is starting to improve.”

Cambodia currently has visa waivers in place for citizens of Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam. The waiver means travelers from those countries do not have to pay $20 for tourism visas or $25 for business visas to legally enter Cambodia.

One of Cambodia’s main industries, the tourism sector slowed in 2009 with Cambodia seeing a 1.1 percent decline in international visitors for the first sex months, after years of double-digit growth. In light of the slowdown, some industry operators have embraced the policy and want it expanded.

Som Sun, owner for the Mekong Heritage tour company, said the exemption is a source of profit and not a loss since visitor typically spend more than the visa fee.

“Visa exemptions help push more visitors to want to visit our country,” she said, adding that her Phnom Penh-based company received more e-mail inquiries from potential travelers in the five countries exempt from the travel document.

Ang Kem Eang, president of the Cambodian Association of Travel Agents, said he would like to see the program expand.

“I think the state lost income but that income went directly to people who have businesses dealing with the tourism sector,” he said. “I want the government to have more visa exemption with countries where there are potential customers.”

In 2008, Cambodia welcomed roughly 2.1 million tourists. Out of the five visa-exempt nations only Vietnam ranked in the top 10. Last year, there were about 209,000 travelers from Vietnam, roughly 10 percent of the total number of visitors. Combined, the four remaining visa-free countries brought in about 221,900 travelers.

Sovanna Phum Art Association Finds a New Home for Theater

The Sovanna Phum Art Association has found a new location for its theater, avoiding closure of the popular Phnom Penh arts venue by a matter of weeks.

Sovanna Phum counts more than 200 members who have for years presented different shows every week, usually featuring Cambodia’s traditional art forms, from shadow puppets to classical dance and masked-theater lakhaon kaol to drums.

The theater is the only venue in the capital running weekly programs for the performing arts, but due to a rent increase at its current location on Street 30, which it could not handle with the global economic crisis, the association has had to find a new location.

Sovanna Phum Artistic Director mann Kosal said Friday that a new location just off Monivong Boulevard, near the Boeng Trabek High School, has been found and parts of the theater have been dismantled already, though tonight’s scheduled shadow puppet show with live music will still go ahead as planned.

“I think that we will build the same type of theater as at the old place, because the new place and the old lots seem to be of similar size,” Mr Kosal said.

Since funding for the association is derived solely from ticket sales, the sale of handicrafts such as leather shadow puppets and occasional performance commissions are required for the theater just to make ends meet.

The decrease in tourism this ear due to the global economic crisis has especially affected the association as its audience usually includes a large number of foreign tourists who also buy handicrafts after the shows, Mr Kosal said.

Cambodians attend the theater in large numbers, but they are free not to pay entrance fees and tend not to buy handicrafts, he said.

Rent at the theater’s new location will be lower than rent so far on the current lot, Mr Kosal said. “The landlord has agreed to give us a five-year lease on the place,” and this long-term contract will greatly facilitate matters, Mr Kosal said.

Experts say World Heritage listing for Banteay Chmar will take years

But officials remain hopeful of winning the coveted designation from UNESCO

The listing of Banteay Chmar temple as a UN World Heritage Site will take at least two to three years, say government officials and scholars who met at a conference on the issue in Sisophon over the weekend.

Banteay Chmar is one of Cambodia's most neglected but most spectacular temple sites. There is a concerted effort to help the site win a coveted World Heritage listing, but the process will not be easy, and there are many hurdles to overcome, officials said.

Currently, not even the preliminary submission of an application for a listing to the National Commission for UNESCO in Phnom Penh has been completed.

"We are not ready to submit the application yet," said Chuch Phoeurn, secretary of state at the Ministry of Culture, who visited Banteay Chmar on Saturday with provincial governor Oung Oeun and other dignitaries and international experts.

More data still needs to be collected to establish that Banteay Chmar possesses "outstanding universal values" that make it a site of great historical and architectural distinction.
Chuch Phoeurn said Banteay Chmar will be able to meet the requirements because it is unique and its architecture differs from the famous Bayon temple in the Angkor complex.

Banteay Chmar is well known for its intricate carvings and long walls of bas-relief. Vast and ruinous, it is one of the few temples to feature the enigmatic Bayon-style giant faces with their mysterious smiles.

It was built by King Jayavarman II on the site of an old Hindu temple in the late 12th or early 13th century. In its original state, a 9-kilometre-long wall enclosed the temple, which was one of the largest Buddhist monasteries of the Angkor era.

Most of the more than 100 scholars attending the three-day Sisophon conference agreed that Banteay Chmar has the credentials to be listed, but they concurred that it is likely to be a long, slow process.

Governor Oung Oeun said: "I will be very happy if this temple can be listed as a World Heritage Site, but before we can achieve that goal a lot of work needs to be done."

Once the initial submission is made and approved, it must then go to the president of UNESCO to confirm, and then it must receive the nod from Prime Minister Hun Sen. Only then will it be submitted to UNESCO in Paris.

If Paris judges it to be a worthwhile bid, a team will be sent to Banteay Chmar to verify the submission - and if they tick it off and UNESCO approves, it will be listed. "It is a long two- to three-year process," said Chuch Phoeurn.

As well as these bureaucratic and cultural hurdles, there are major infrastructure and access problems to sort out, officials warned. The road leading to the site is in poor condition and is often washed out in the rainy season.

John Sandey, Asia Pacific field director of the Global Heritage Fund, which is helping Cambodia restore the temple, said at the conference:

"There are major deficiencies like a lack of water and electricity at the site that must receive attention. No water, no tourists." And no World Heritage listing - for the moment.