Tourism Fundamentals in Cambodia - Term Paper Example

Running head: A Report of Tourism Fundamentals in Cambodia Student’s name Institution Course Professor Date Abstract The Kingdom of Cambodia has been recognized for a very long time as a land of fascinating and magnificent scenery that was coupled with ancient mysterious and captivating culture with a large tourist base across the entire globe. With the diverse tourism destination, the country has had a lot to offer to its modern world travelers (Hoffman, 2006). For examples, place such as the City capital of Phnom Penh with fascinating Palace, a comfortable social life. The town of Siem Reap is pleasant and welcoming and with close proximity to ever smiling faces of Angkor and beautiful stones temples. The magnificent serene beaches of Sihanoukville along the coastal strip too attracted many international visitors to Cambodia. Cambodia tourists mainly came from China, Korea and Japan other inbound tourists were Vietnamese, Germans and French. In order to improve the inbound tourism, Cambodia devised strategy such as facilitation of travel and tourist transportation and promotion campaign. The boasting of domestic tourism activities have boomed up to adequately contribute to internal economic activities. These move illustrated that Cambodia had stability, better infrastructure, safety, stability, tourism resorts and services and stable economic growth. Tourism sector being a system that demands participant from the relevant institution played an important role towards contributing to socio economic development for instance poverty alleviation, creation and augmentation of employment opportunity, income generation and general improvement of peoples’ living standards. The tour package is very costly when compared with other neighboring countries. The tourism promotion at international markets lately has not been widely along the misunderstanding about the real Cambodia situation, which has become an embedding obstacle in their decision to travel to this region. To avoid the above challenges, there is need to have strategies to attract the international tourists. There was need to encouraged the promotional activities in the new emerging markets such as Middle East, Russia and Europe. Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Discussion 4 A description of the Indonesia profile and as a tourist destination 4 Identity the main tourists markets currently visiting the country 6 Describe the current and previous marketing and promotion of Cambodia as a tourism destination 7 Identify the major issues and challenges that confront the future development of tourism in Cambodia and how they are addressed 10 Challenges 10 Solutions 11 CONCLUSION 11 References 12 Introduction The Kingdom of Cambodia has been recognized for a very long time as a land of fascinating and magnificent scenery that is coupled with ancient mysterious and captivating culture with a large tourist base across the entire globe (Hoffman, 2006). For instance, the magnificent temples of the old empire Angkor that demonstrated the ancient past together with the recent gruesome history such as the horrors caused by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970’s has made the country to be adored. With a view of this, the Cambodia took a step higher to capitalize on this on the tourism industry (Krell, 1990). Discussion A description of the Indonesia profile and as a tourist destination The Country was formally under French protectorate being it gained its independence in the year 1953. It is sited in the mainland of South East Asia and covers area of 181,035km2 (Kandari & Chandra, 2004). The population of its citizen is approximated to be 14 million. After gaining independence the country underwent six sizeable changes in regards to social, political and economic systems. With the diverse tourism destination, the country has had a lot to offer to its modern world travelers (Hoffman, 2006). For examples, place such as the City capital of Phnom Penh with fascinating Palace, a comfortable social life. The town of Siem Reap is pleasant and welcoming and with close proximity to ever smiling faces of Angkor and beautiful stones temples. The magnificent serene beaches of Sihanoukville along the coastal strip too attracted many international visitors to Cambodia (Krell, 1990). This country is endowed with both natural and heritage attraction sites. For instance, it has six national parks which cover about 12% of the country’s total area. These national parks included; National park of Bokor mountain, Raam National Park, Kirirom National Park (Krell, 1990). Other tourist sites that practiced ecotourism were located in Tonde Sap Lake and its floating village, the Mekong River and magnificent beaches that covered the southern part of the coast. Among the ancient temples known included; Angkor temple complex, the Sambor prey Kub temple complex and the Preah Vihea temple (Hoffman, 2006). Alternatively, local, regional and international tourism were attracted by the various historical buildings at the sites and ranged from the royal palace, the national museum that had in its custody various ancient objects of Cambodian art history. Furthermore, the Toul Sleng Museum typically depicted the present criminal activities committed at the time of Khmer Rouge regime. The annual festivals such as Khmer New yeah water festivals have attracted several tourists to this destination. Due to this Cambodia has been viewed at the most unique tourist destination that encouraged cultural heritage tourism development (Krell, 1990). The above tourists’ sites for instance the ancient history and the recent history did offered the tourists varied experiences. These tourists attractions sites like the ancient temples of the old empire Angkor and also the deleterious genocide that was caused by the Khamar rouge that left behind a lot of evidences. Alternatively, the coastal town of Sihanoukville acted as a tourist destination. Indeed Cambodia has been recognized with rich diversity in terms of the natural resources. This did allowed the practice of ecotourism to be famous way to the tourists in the country (Pusat Penelitian Sumberdaya Regional, 2008). Moreover, the unique cultural heritage that existed in the country has led to the development of cultural tourism and community based tourism that championed the win-win scenario in the tourism activity (Hudman & Jackson, 2003). Also, the rising growth in sustainable tourism activities has promoted the responsible travel demonstrated by the international tourists. Figure 1.0: Map of Cambodia (Source: (World Travel & Tourism council 2008)) Identity the main tourists markets currently visiting the country Cambodia tourists mainly came from China, Korea and Japan other inbound tourists were Vietnamese, Germans and French. Under the brilliant leadership of Samdach Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo HUB SEN, prime minister of the Royal Government of Cambodia put up, implemented and promoted the strategy of Clean City, Clean Resort and Good Service. Due to that, the tourism sector achieved the growth of approximately two percent with about 2,161,577 international visitor arrivals witnessed in 2009. The emerging markets such as China, India, Russia and Middle East. Among the top-10 priority tourists markets of Cambodia inn2009 were Vietnam, Korea, America, Japan, Australia, France, Loa PDR and Thailand. Describe the current and previous marketing and promotion of Cambodia as a tourism destination In order to improve the inbound tourism, Cambodia devised strategy such as facilitation of travel and tourist transportation and promotion campaign. The boasting of domestic tourism activities have boomed up to adequately contribute to internal economic activities. These move illustrated that Cambodia had stability, better infrastructure, safety, stability, tourism resorts and services and stable economic growth. The government has implemented the policy of expansion of every cultural product to the natural tourism destinations, such products included the ecotourism zone and the coastal zone were developed to be fundamental tourism facilities. The hygiene and sanitation and tourism quality were strengthened through the development of tourism communities such as Beong Kayak, Preah Rumkil and Kompong Klang ecotourism communities. The Chong Kneas tourism community has been managed properly thus becoming major tourists’ attraction sites as well providing job opportunities and protection of environment. There has been the organization of tourism events and sports for instance the Trail civilization in April and Pre-organizing the ASEAN Tourism forum in 2011. The quality services of tourism has been strengthened by the continued competition movement of “Clean City, Clean Resort and Good Services”. There was diversification of tourism destinations both at natural and cultural tourism sites so that tourism products could be developed and diversified. As a marketing strategy ,research have been carried out on tourism potentials at the 4-priority tourism destinations, for instance historical and cultural sites, coastal zones, Phnom Penh area and its surroundings so that both national and international tourists to visit those sites. Tourism events such as tourism and trade fairs, Khmer food competition at tourism communities and art performances of traditions and customs of people have been created Main impacts that tourism has had on Cambodia (both positive and negative (Environmental, economic, social and cultural) Tourism sector being a system that demands participant from the relevant institution played an important role towards contributing to socio economic development for instance poverty alleviation, creation and augmentation of employment opportunity, income generation and general improvement of peoples’ living standards. Sustainable tourism has made immense contribution towards to the development, conservation and protection of both cultural and historical treasures, natural resources and climate change protection. The pouring in of foreign currency into the current Cambodia economy of about USD1, 560 million resulted in contribution of Gross domestic product (GDP) and general improvement of the economic growth. Generally, tourism activity has played a fundamental role in the Cambodia’s economy. The tourism sector in Cambodia has been termed as a chief source of income which have a significant impact to the county’s economy (Hudman & Jackson, 2003). The tourism industry owing to its growth, has become labour intensive and thus any improvement could generate more job opportunities as compared to other sectors of the economy. The country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and exports have gained due to tourism earnings. For example the foreign exchange earnings have risen tremendously for the last 10 years thus attaining a reasonable growth rate (Kandari & Chandra, 2004). Other developmental infrastructures have been improved. These infrastructures ranged from hotels, airports, road and communications network, power and water supply have improved the general well-being of its citizens (Hoffman, 2006). Alternatively, tourism in Cambodia has contributed immensely to the regional development. For example, it has fostered international good will and understanding and at the same time improved the social and cultural appreciation at the grass root level. In addition, tourism industry has been regarded as a favourable vehicle that could allow cultural exchanges which could ultimately promote international understanding and cooperation among the people around the globe. Being a decentralized economic activity, it was able to diversify its regional economies (Hudman & Jackson, 2003). Identify policies for Cambodia which relate to encouraging sustainable development of the tourism sector. The open sky policy of the Royal Government of Cambodia has supported and encouraged tourists to travel on air. This was coupled with the improvement of airports such as Preah Sihanouk provincial airport and the Cambodia Angkor Air. The use of Visa on arrival with travel facilitation at international gateways and e-visa greatly supported the tourism in Cambodia. The signing of the agreement between the Royal Government of Cambodia with Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Lao and Vietnam ensure that their people are exempted from paying visa fees. Thirteen information centers in the municipality and provinces especially along the international borders with a view to provide information to tourists and also promotion of Cambodia tourism. Compacting activities against child sex tourism and actions taken actively against criminals through child safe tourism commission. There are promotional materials that have been produced that included educational programs on radio, posters and leaflets with the sole intention to educate and promote child safe in tourism sector. Identify the major issues and challenges that confront the future development of tourism in Cambodia and how they are addressed Challenges Cambodia tourism has faced a lot of challenges. The tour package is very costly when compared with other neighboring countries. The tourism promotion at international markets lately has not been widely along the misunderstanding about the real Cambodia situation, which has become an embedding obstacle in their decision to travel to this region. Alternatively, the tourism resorts and services are very limited and less standardized such that it could correspond with the needs of the tourists, thus it calls for proper improvement and strengthening of quality. In other instances, tourism development was majored only on crowded areas and this resulted to benefit sharing not distributed equally to local communities. Infrastructures that supported the tourism sector such as roads, electricity, clean water and waste management system were limited. This called for massive improvement in those amenities. There was leakage of benefit of tourism sector via imports of goods and products that could be replaced by augmentation of production and support of use of locally manufactured products. Therefore, the need to strengthen close ties and cooperation between the tourism entrepreneurs and the producers. Generally, tourism sector have been influenced by financial crisis, global economic recession, outbreak of A/H1N1 epidermis and political crisis of Thailand. Both public and private tourism sector have had insufficient human resources. With the view of the challenges, tourism in Cambodia is expected to increase the tourists’ number when the world economy recovers. The tourism sources is due to grow by 6.8% especially in ASEAN member states with Cambodia being highly preferred as being a cultural and natural tourism destinations attractions being coupled with peaceful, safety and political safety Solutions To avoid the above challenges, there is need to have strategies to attract the international tourists. There was need to encouraged the promotional activities in the new emerging markets such as Middle East, Russia and Europe. The public and private sector have to be encouraged so that they could collaborate well with the Ministry of tourism in all aspects as well as promotion of images at the international markets. Through cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Ministry of Commerce, the tourism destinations at Cambodia were promoted at international markets. CONCLUSION Cambodia has huge potential for development of tourism and its allied sectors. The availability of rich cultural-tourism destination in the country such as the World Heritage sites of Angkor Wat and Preah vihear temple and other ecotourism sites such as Tonle Sap and tropical rain forest (Krell, 1990). Successful tourism sector require the private organization to collaborate with other stakeholders that could promote tourism destination and boast tourism experiences to a greater extent. However, insufficient marketing promotion and higher standards services demanded by huge numbers of high class tourists. Otherwise, many tourists expressed their optimum satisfaction from Cambodia as their tourism destination. References Barbara T. Hoffman, (2006).Art And Cultural Heritage: Law, Policy and Practice, Cambridge University press Lloyd E. Hudman, Richard H. Jackson, (2003). Geography of Travel tourism, Cengage learning. Maya Krell, (1990).Tourism in Cambodia, Ecumenical coalition on Third World Tourism Ministry of Tourism, (2007): Tourism Statistical Report 2007. Phnom Penh: Statistics and Tourism Information Department, Ministry of Tourism. O. P. Kandari, Ashish Chandra, (2004).Tourism, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development: Concepts, definitions and classifications of tourism, Gyan Publishing. Pusat Penelitian Sumberdaya Regional, (2008).The development of Tourism in Cambodia: Cultural conservation, history and environment, Research Center for Regional Resources, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences Read More