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.