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By
: Heng Sopheap (National Institute of Management), Picture
by : nathan Dexter.
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Cambodia
may well end up hitching its economic star
to the almighty tourist dollar
over the coming decades as the tourism market
continues to grow not only for the Kingdom,
but around the world. Tourism is a lucrative
market and the number of tourists visiting
Cambodia has continued to soar as the Kingdom
maintains a newfound political stability.
So what is the definition of an international
tourist?
According to the National Institute of Management
in Phnom Penh, this includes "any temporary
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visitor staying
at least 24 hours in a country whose motives for travel
that can be described as being leisure (whether pleasure,
holiday, study or sport), family, business or work".
Business travelers include such diverse categories as
tour guides, commercial travelers, business representatives
and artists. The economic crisis felt in many major nations
in Asia and the rest of the world in 1997 slowed tourism
growth in the East Asia and the Pacific region that year
to zero. The current recession, combined with the September
11 terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and
the war in Afghanistan have severely damaged tourism worldwide,
including Cambodia's tourism market. A large number of
international tourists cancelled trips overseas in the
wake of the September attack. However that dip has already
started to correct itself and tourist numbers for Cambodia
are again on the rise. Cambodia still saw a 22 per cent
rise in international tourist numbers in the first 10
months of 2001 compared to corresponding period in 2000.
From January through to October of 2001, a total of 334,737
international tourists visited Cambodia. Of them, almost
half (168,125) were holidaymakers. About one sixth (53,120)
were here on business, and less than two per cent (8,189)
cited "other purposes".
About one-third (105,290) arrived in Cambodia by direct
flights from centers such as Bangkok and Singapore. The
highest percentage of visitors came from Asia and Oceania
(25.8 per cent), followed by Europeans (16 per cent),
North Americans (112 per cent) and people from the Middle
East and Africa. A new report from the World Tourism Organization,
called Tourism 2020 Vision, estimates an average annual
rise in inbound international tourism to the Mekong grouping
of countries (Cambodia, Laos, China, Burma, Thailand and
Vietnam) of 7.7 per cent by the year 2020, based on statistics
from 1995 to the present. That would mean 183 million
international tourists to this region by 2020, with China
alone taking in 137 million. Based on these figures, the
Mekong countries will increase their global tourism market
share from 5.1 per cent in 1995 to 11.4 per cent by 2020.
The challenge for those leading the development of tourism
in these countries will be to satisfy the divergent tastes
of the two principal markets both Asian travelers, and
those from the industrialized but distant markets of Europe
and North America. |
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Suite
B8, Regency Square, InterContinental Hotel, 294 Mao Tse Toung
Boulevard,
Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia.
Tel: (855) 23 213 133 Fax: (855) 23 213 033
E-mail:
editor@leisurecambodia.com |
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