International Tourism and Hotel Management in Phnom Penh

This report delves into the tourism sector of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, focusing on tourist visitation, impacts on the host community, destination attractiveness, and policy implications. It discusses the positive and negative impacts of tourism on the economy, society, and environment, as well as the issues related to tourism in Phnom Penh.

Running head: INTERNATIONAL TOURISM AND HOTEL MANAGEMENT
International Tourism and Hotel Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Tourist visitation..............................................................................................................................2
Destination attractiveness................................................................................................................3
Positive and the negative impacts on the host community at the location......................................4
Issues related to tourism in Phnom Penh.........................................................................................6
Policy implications..........................................................................................................................9
Reference.......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
One of the remarkable facts of Cambodia is the Angkor Wat. It is the main reason due to
which the tourists flock to Cambodia and is the world's largest religious building in the world.
Phnom Penh is the capital city of Cambodia and is popularly known as the Pearl of Asia. This
report aims to illustrate the tourism in Phnom Penh (Dwyer and Thomas 2012). The report
focuses on the tourism sector of Phnom Penh and focuses on the tourist visitation, impacts on the
hosts, policy implications, destination attractiveness and tourism visitation.
Tourist visitation
The tourism sector of Phnom Penh has earned 3.63-billion-dollar revenue last year and
this is found to be about a 13.3 percent increase according to the latest figures from the Ministry
of Tourism. In the last year, the tourists that visited the kingdom has spent around 5.6 million
and this is about 11.8 percent more in comparison to the year 2016. This has been said by the
Kong Sopherarak who is the director of the statistics department at the Tourism Ministry. The
director also stated that the large of tourists into the country is due to the increased air
connectivity to the regions like China. According to the government report, China tops the
number of the travellers that are visiting the kingdom in the year 2017. The other countries that
came after China are Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Korea. The international flights that are being
operated by the international flight operators have led to the increased number of visitors from
China. According to the Director of the Tourism industry in Phnom Penh, it is expected that
there will be at least six million international tourists in the year 2018, seven million in the year
2020 and ten million in the year 2025 (Khmer Times 2018).

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The tourism statistics by the Phnom Penh government suggests that 540,478 passengers
and 629,927 passengers arrived in the Phnom Penh International Airport. In the year 2016 the
share of the total number of passengers that arrived in Phnom Penh is 59.1 percent and in the
year 2017, the percentage is 61.4 percent. Thus, there is about 16.5 percent of the increase in the
total number of tourist arrival. The foreign tourists that arrived the Phnom Penh are 419,797 and
486,467 in the year 2016 and 2017 respectively. The percentage of share is 39.6 and 40.9 percent
for the year 2016 and 2017 respectively. Thus, the increase in the total number of tourists visiting
in the year 2017 in Phnom Penh is 15.9 percent in comparison to the year 2016 (Kingdom of
Cambodia 2017).
The evidence concludes that China tops the chart with the most numbers of visitors, and it is
followed by Vietnam. In the year 2017 the total number of tourists visiting Phnom Penh is
172,438 and for the year 2016 is 147,796 (Kingdom of Cambodia 2017).
Destination attractiveness
The Phenom Penh is the capital city of Cambodia and it is situated at the confluence of
the three rivers like the great Tonle Sap, Bassac and the mighty Mekong. The city of Phnom
Penh provides the tranquillity and the charm tree linked boulevards within the Angkorian
architecture, the other chief attraction is the French colonial mansion (Tourismcambodia 2018).
People travel to the city because there are a number of the hotels and restaurants that have
played a major role in the increasing a large number of the visitors. The other reasons due to
which the people visit Phnom Penh are the presence of the largest religious buildings, world
heritage sites and also the Angkor Wat in the west (Tourismcambodia 2018).

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The tourists are attracted to the Phnom Penh due to the various tourist attraction sites like
the Royal Palace, Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Choeung Ek, Silver Pagoda, National Museum
of Cambodia, Wat Phnom, Central Market, Independence Monument, Tuol Tom Poung Market,
Wat Ounalom, Tonle Bati. The sites act as pull factors and the sites are both historical and
present the grandeur of the historical kingdoms of Cambodia (Tourismcambodia 2018).
The Maslow's 5 stage tourism motivation theory states that there are 2 motivational factors like
arousal seeking motives and the tension reducing motives. The five needs that progress from the
bottom to up. At the bottom portion is the basic need for the protection, security and safety
(Šimková and Holzner 2014).
Phnom Penh has a lot of tourist destinations and the destination presents a wide variety of
options like the scenic beauty, historical buildings, and hotels and restaurants that satisfy the
basic needs of the tourists and at the same time provide the protection, security and safety. The
types of the tourists that are attracted to the site are religious, cultural and leisure tourists.
Positive and the negative impacts on the host community at the location
Economic impacts- the direct contribution of GDP for the year was found to be 9,888
billion KHR and it is 12 percent of the Cambodian GDP. Also in the year 2017, the rise is found
to be about 10,949 billion KHR. This is primarily generated by the passenger transportation
services, airlines, travel agents, and hotels. This also includes the activities of the leisure
industries and the restaurants that are supported by the tourists. The travel and the tourism have
generated about 988,000 jobs for the year 2016 and this increased by 9 percent in the 2017 and
the overall number of the 1078,500 and is about 12 percent of the total employment. Due to the

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travel and the tourism, the tourism industry attracted about 2,5637 billion KHR in the year 2016
(Wttc.org (2018).
Socio-economic impacts- the impacts of the tourism have major social benefits to the
residents of the that are residing in an around the urban areas. the tourism industry, local and the
international tourists. The upgraded roads will serve to facilitate the efficient movement of the
goods and population. The tourism related infrastructure also promotes the greater tourist
throughput and will also revamp the river facilities. With the increase in the employment
opportunities along with the higher income has resulted in an increased economic activity in the
sub-region. The efficient sewage disposal systems and the wastewater treatment has proved to
improve the quality of life of the resident populations. The burden on the woman especially with
respect to the childcare and the other household activities has resulted in an improved child
health which is dependent on the waste disposal, efficient sewage. Better facilities provided at
the border crossings will enhance the movement of the local tourists and the migrant workers and
this also led to the development of the wider regional community (mekonginfo.org 2018).
Negative effects- It is important to note that the tourists that come to Phnom Penh do not
just come for pleasure and there is a small number of the tourists find Phnom Penh as a safe
haven for the child trafficking and other forms of sexual abuse. There is another cross cultural
and trans-national crimes like the transmitting the fatal diseases, drug trafficking and prostitution
along with the other forms of the security threats that the tourists bring with them has resulted
into a big threat for the population of the Phnom Penh. The expatriates that come to stay in
Phnom Penh has resulted into the spread of new ideas among the Cambodians and help to
modernise the country. however, it is bad for the culture of Phnom Penh due to the fact that

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Cambodians starts to follow the foreign dressing style and as well follows the western culture
(Soratha 2018).
Environmental impact- Tourism is capable of generating both the negative and the
positive impacts and it depends how well the development is managed and planned. It is better to
stay that the tourism in Cambodia and Phnom Penh has provided a chance to conserve the scenic
landscapes of the Phnom Penh, along with the conservation of the protected areas, wildlife
sanctuaries and national parks. It has been found that the Phnom Penh government has
designated the protected areas in the country and which is the basis of the nature tourism and
thus this has promoted the conservation of nature through the tourism. It has also been seen that
the several historic and the archaeological sites are conserved through the development of
tourism. Several improvements in the infrastructure which includes the infrastructure that
services the tourism has been pointed out. The infrastructural improvement has resulted in
controlling the environmental impacts and also improved the water, air, congestion and the types
of pollution (mrcmekong.org 2018).
Negative impacts- the environmental problems result from the development of the tourism and
the environmental problems that have aroused due to the tourism activities are the pollution in
the ground and the surface water. The other issues that arise are the improper sewage water
disposal from the tourist facilities, poorly designed hotels and also from the places that not so
important tourist places. It has been found that the random littering in places and this has
destroyed the landscape. This has actively raised the issues like the drainage problems after the
heavy rains, traffic congestion, limited maintenance of the public and the urban space, solid
waste disposal problems. Other serious problems that have been faced by the Phnom Penh is the

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uncontrolled logging problems and this has led to a wide range of disforestation all over the
country and especially in the tourism awareness (mekonginfo.org 2018).
Issues related to tourism in Phnom Penh
Issues related to tourism- Phnom Penh has several tourist destinations like the Royal
Palace and being the capital city of Phnom Penh has undergone many developments. The
Mekong River, Tonle Sap and Tonle Bassac form an X inside the city of Phnom Penh. These
rivers provide the freshwater and types of resources. However, the major concern lies in the fact
that the tourist destinations have suffered at the hands of the natural and human factors. The
development of tourism, industrialization, economic reform and war have imposed plenty of
undesirable side effects on the scenic zones of Phnom Penh (Khmer Times 2018). Thus, there is
a need to protect the natural environment and is becoming an urgency within the Cambodian
Governmental policies (Kaliyann 2018). Phnom Penh today has wild animal sanctuaries, multi-
use zones, scenic zones and natural parks. However, the important part is that tourism support
systems like the lodging accommodations, restaurants, transportation and the marketing
promotions are rather found to be limited. It is important to note that the Mekong river, as well as
the Tonle Sap, floods the Phnom Penh area every rainy season. Thus, the tourism sector still
faces serious issues related to logistics (Hotel-online 2018).
The visa control issues that recently modify the cumbersome immigration procedures that pose
the policy of no entry without the visa. The visitation to Phnom Penh is only restricted to the 14
days is not able to attract the tourists. The high inflation rates have also impacted the local
currencies Riel and this clashes with the traveller's checks and the credit cards. It has also been
noted that the due to printing of the high number of banknotes to pay to the civil servants have
led to the impacting the economy negatively. It is seen that the Riel is rarely used by the visitors,

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instead, US dollar is used to conduct the transactions. The other types of issues that often
prohibit the tourism sector is the high crime rates, unstable political environment and the Khmer
Rough guerrillas that attack the tourists. The management level positions in the Cambodian
government is filled up by Thailand and the Singaporean expatriates. The country itself lacks
good vocational training schools and hospitality technical colleges. The security issues remained
the concern for the personal safety and places like Burundi and Rwanda are considered to be the
most dangerous places. There are other issues like the criminals and drug traffickers taking
advantage of the sluggish legal system and the ineffective police system (Web-cambodia 2018).
Due to the destruction of the signs of the rail network during the war has led to the visitors to
share services buses and the taxi services for the purpose of the local transportation. However, it
is important to note that the sources are of transportation are not reliable since the majority of the
roads are not surfaced roads. Roadblocks by the armed thugs, encounter by the bandits and
unexploded mines have proved to be a risk for the road transport (Kolnberger 2012). Taxi
services are very limited in Phnom Penh and the travellers are left with the options like the rental
bicycles, motorcycles, and the rental cars that are available at the reasonable prices. While rain,
on the other hand, poses several problems for the travellers. There are other problems of
communications and communication with the outside world is possible only through the fax and
international call. These services are available only in few hotels (GOV.UK 2018).
Issues related to the development of Tourism in Phnom Penh- Tourism has played a
major role in generating the employment and also helped in reducing the employment. This has a
trickle-down effect on the creation of the local business, improving the local economies,
improving the living conditions and at the same time reduces the poverty within the local
communities. It is important to note that the number of the visitors have considerably increased

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in the 21 century. the number of visitors has increased considerably from the year 2010 to 2015
(Pound and Vijit 2016).
Recommendation-
 The awareness of the environment has to be increased so that it does not impact
the tourism must inform the problem to the tourists and the stakeholders.
 There should be a control mechanism for the tourism industry and also in
enforcing the regulations (Dwyer and Thomas 2012).
 The landscapes must be preserved so that it contributes positively to the
attractiveness of the tourist destinations.
 The Cambodian government must include more tourism professionals in the
training schools (Pound and Vijit 2016).
Policy implications
Government play a vital role in legislation tourism policy. Additionally, the other tourism
policies also have an indirect and direct impact on the tourism industry. Green tourism plays a
vital role in the sustainable development and conservation of the environment (Carter 2015). The
green tourism policy will have the long-term benefit for the Phnom Penh and the implications of
the policy are as follows:
 The policy will empower the local communities that include the young people and
the women (Khon 2013).
 The policy will safeguard the natural resources and it will help in protecting the
endangered species like the giant ibises, elephants and the gibbons (Seyhah and
Usami 2014).

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 The income of the local communities will increase and this will reduce the
poverty and will increase the educational opportunities for the children. This will
be possible through the implementation of the community-based tourism
development and the will increase the employment opportunities (Jackie Ong and
Smith 2014).
 Through the sustainable tourism, the lifecycle of the tourist destination will
increase and will have better conservation outcomes (Reimer and Walter 2013).
Visa exemption- the countries that are allowed to visit Phnom Penh are the Brunei,
Vietnam., Thailand, Singapore, Seychelles, Philippines, Malaysia, Laos, Indonesia. The Tourism
industry also proposed visa-free entry for the neighbouring countries in the year 2015 (Hor and
Thaiprasert 2015).

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