Despite the crisis, Cambodians will still be going away massively for the Khmer New Year

Prasat Preah Vihear (Cambodia, Preah Vihear). 09/04/2008: Photographer with Cambodian banner photographing a Cambodian tourist visiting the Preah Vihear temple. ©John Vink/ Magnum

Ka-set

By Ros Dina
09-04-2009

Despite the economic crisis, Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism forecasts important movements of population within the Kingdom for the celebrations of the traditional Khmer New Year, which will run from Tuesday 14th through to Thursday April 16th. The number of foreign tourists has been going down since the beginning of this year compared with 2008, but many Cambodians should still be going away during those three days, especially to celebrate the coming of the New Year 2553BE with their family in their home province.

In its annual report, the Ministry of Tourism counted more than 6.7 million national tourists in 2008, i.e. half of the total population of Cambodia. The main destination for those travellers remains Phnom Penh (1.78 million national visitors in 2008), followed by Siem reap and the coast. Numbers of Cambodian visitors have but increased over the past few years: in 2008, there were four times as many tourists as there were in 2002.

According to Minister of Tourism Thong Khon, Cambodian “tourists” are still many this year despite the crisis: indeed, an almost 15% increase in the number of travellers is expected. Thus, the Minister asked provincial departments to make twice as many efforts to prepare the massive arrival of local visitors and make sure security and hygiene standards are maintained on the odd 1,000 touristic sites officially registered in the country, out of which 200 are highly popular.

The Minister also announced the organisation of New Year celebrations on O'Chheuteal Beach in the Preah Sihanouk province: famous male and female singers will perform; beach sports and traditional popular games are also on the agenda. “The main goal for this operation is to spread information on the potential of the Cambodian coastal area, in parallel to the site of Angkor and activity linked with eco-tourism in other regions. We want to establish connections with the West and South and with the eco-touristic sites in the North-West in the Steung Treng, Kratie, Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri provinces”, Thong Khon explained. These connections do not work in the most efficient way yet, as over the first two months this year, more than 12,000 tourists stopped off in the port of Sihanoukville on the occasion of a coastal trip, but only 35% of them decided to visit Angkor as well due to a lack of air plane connection linking the coastal town and Siem Reap.

Besides, the Minister of Tourism also announced the elaboration, soon, of national standards regarding the quality of sites, services, tourism activities and cooking, as well as a plan to emphasise regional traditions.