26 CAMBODIA TOURIST INDUSTRY ANALYSIS INTRODUCTION Cambodia has a long standing tourist tradition. In the 1960s, Cambodia was a prominent tourist destination in the Southeast Asian region. However, due to protracted periods of civil war, insurgencies from 1975 to 1990, Cambodia’s tourism industry was close to non-existent. Since the late 1990s, however, tourism in Cambodia has experienced a strong revival and is fast becoming the country ’s second largest industry, and greatest source of hard currency, just behind textile manufacturing. The country offers extensive tourism resources through its rich history and culture. Renowned for its cultural heritage sites such as the UNESCO-listed Angkor Wat temples, Cambodia also offers a variety of untouched natural environments such as beaches, islands and forests. Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism has focused its tourism development on four aspects, namely culture, coastal, city and ecotourism. In terms of culture, there are approximately 40 identified sites of the Angkor temple complex in Siem Reap and its surroundings. These temples embody rich cultural and historical significance and two are currently listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The new tourism strategy of the Ministry of Tourism aims to spread tourism to other provinces beyond Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, and to both cultural heritage and ecotourism. The intense development of Cambodia as a tourism destination has been supported by the development of important transportation infrastructure; in particular Cambodia’s two international airports in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap respectively. TABLE №9 INTERNATIONAL TOURIST ARRIVALS TO CAMBODIA IN JANUARY - DECEMBER 2014 Inbound tourism Share (%) Change (%) 2013 2014 2013 2014 2014/13 Air 2,017,658 2,273,493 47.9 50.5 12.7 Phnom Penh Int'l Airport (PNH) 836,377 917,800 19.9 20.4 9.7 Siem Reap Int'l Airport (REP) 1,181,281 1,355,693 28.1 30.1 14.8 Land and Waterways 2,192,507 2,229,282 52.1 49.5 1.7 Land 2,117,454 2,132,332 50.3 47.4 0.7 Waterway 75,053 96,950 1.8 2.2 29.2 Total 4,210,165 4,502,775 100.0 100.0 7.0 The statistics underpin consistent growth of tourism for all months of the year. This increase can be explained in part by the government ’s determination to allocate the country ’s unspoiled tourism resources and human capital to achieve substantial improvements in tourism and transport infrastructure to include more roads, better functioning international airports; quality hotels and facilitate the creation of restaurant, bars and entertainment facilities to further promote the Cambodian tourism experience.
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