A couple of years ago I posted an article entitled “Will
Sihanoukville Ever Become A Real Tourist Destination?” Now two years or so
later I think it’s time to take another look, not the least because I have
joined the hotel community myself. My hotel has been open a year now – so one
gains plenty of hands-on experience this way. In one of my previous careers I
looked at hotels from the tour operator’s view, now I look at it or them from
behind the reception counter or my office.
First, Sihanoukville has recorded a tremendous increase of
tourist arrivals. Online booking agencies (booking.com, agoda.com) report a
300% increase of bookings over last year. This does not take into account the
arrivals from Vietnam who mostly come in tour buses, or from China who are
mostly booked through travel agencies directly into the hotel. Vietnamese
ranked number one, Chinese number two, Russians number three. Koreans are the
third largest group for Cambodia but rank among the also ran for Sihanoukville.
Altogether there were about 764,000 arrivals in the first 6 months of 2014, or
a 27% increase over last year. These numbers surely are impressive.
Recently there was one charter flight from Korea to test the
waters so to speak. That tour operator announced regular weekly flights next
high season, but we will have to wait and see. Many times announcements are
just that; Cambodia has seen and heard many of those without them ever
materializing.
The fact remains, though, that Sihanoukville still lacks the
infrastructure for becoming a major world-class tourist destination. A major
tourist destination is defined by the number of hotel beds that at least thrice
weekly flights for any given airline would be able to fill. Since there would
be several airlines from different countries you are looking at about 1800
seats or a requirement of about roughly 5,400 beds for those airlines alone; if
you factor in an 80% occupancy of those
flights the number of beds would still be around 4,500 beds.
Specifically, there are not enough hotel rooms in the 3 to 5
star category. The hotels that cater to a specific Asian clientele are not
necessarily ones that are in line with the requirements of Western, Korean, or
Japanese tour operators. As with everything else, China is a new economic
factor and they travel in large numbers. Of course, a tourist is a tourist, no
matter where they come from, but taking Thailand as an example the majority of
their tourist business is from developed countries. So in order to attract
larger numbers from those the mix of hotels needs to change. There are about 175 hotels in Sihanoukville,
most of them hidden away in places where no tourist would book a room, except
for the occasional backpacker. These hotels count and exist (possibly subsist)
on weekend traffic from Phnom Penh. For the most part they are cheap (in the
$10 to$20 range). The owners own the land and the building outright so they can
afford low rates. Their income expectations are rather modest too. Since they
employ almost exclusively family members they can easily live on that – for the
time being. Eventually, inflation will force them to raise their rates as well.
If you look at the major areas you will get a clear
distinction of the type of tourist that stays there. Victory beach is nice but
is just a bit too close to the port. A port always brings murky, if not dirty, waters
so the beach there is not a prime location. There are a couple of hotels that
are in the 3 star category and large enough to accommodate a certain number of
guests.
There is an unfettered building boom in both regular housing
as well as in condominiums and hotels. Some of the larger new hotels have an
outright tasteless design, but those things are in the eye of the beholder. Nevertheless,
they still won’t fill the void.
Occheuteal Beach with its purely Cambodian ambience is home
to quite a few hotels and so is Serendipity Beach. A few of those would meet
international standards, but not nearly enough for those airplane loads of
tourists. Most of the hotels are mom-and –pop operations and clearly aimed at
the individual traveler, as does my hotel with 16 rooms.
Sokha Beach has one large 5-star international hotel, and
Independence Beach also has one large 5-star property. Currently, they are the
only ones able to accommodate larger numbers.
Then you have Otres Beach, which is divided into two parts –
the near end and the far end. The near end is backpackers haven and as such
would not count in the greater plan. The far end currently has two nice
somewhat upscale hotels but they also only have 10 or 20 rooms respectively. A
handful of wooden bungalows with a sort of basic flavor cater to individual
tourists who like this.
Although Sihanoukville Bay is one of the world’s most
beautiful bays the beaches are in need of some major overhaul for this new
market. They are nice and even beautiful, well-accepted by individual travelers
but a tour operator would think twice. This is why no major hotel chain has
ventured into this market.
The majority of guests and hotel owners want it to stay this
way - a destination for people who do not like to use organized travel. The other main sectors are restaurants and
entertainment. Except for a handful of restaurants that serve great food,
especially Asian seafood, most are Cambodian eateries along the beach and
consequently frequented by natives. Sometimes a look at the kitchens of those
places make you doubt the quality of the food. Western places there aren’t that
different either. Everybody can get their meal but to round off the
attractiveness of a destination one needs a few more somewhat upscale
restaurants.
For entertainment there is hardly anything for the
mainstream Western tourist. Asians will like the many Karaoke places, and the
casinos, if it were. But recent news reports state that this business sector is
losing money. I have never understood why companies thought that gamblers from
neighboring countries would come in such numbers to make this a profitable
business. Anyway, I don’t see Western tourists coming for casinos. There are
definitely more exciting casinos elsewhere in the world, just think ‘Las
Vegas’. There are a few restaurants/bars with DJ’s on Serendipity Beach (the
first stretch on the Western end of Occheuteal Beach). The music is loud, the
crowd is mixed, with a lot of Cambodian girls looking for men they can lure
into a tryst. This is more for the young people or the single male. Victory
hill is home to many bars with taxi girls. This is the seamy side of
Sihanoukville, and this together with a place close to port called chicken farm
is where the whole city got its seedy reputation. This is slowly being pushed
into the background as the clientele overall has changed drastically over the
past few years. One sign of that is that even during the rainy season
mainstream tourists come here. Before it was mostly single men who liked the
cheap beer and cheap girls.
Recently, the American Embassy put out a travel advisory
warning tourists not to visit Occheuteal Beach after dark, mainly Serendipity
Beach, as there were reports of increased gang activities and violence against
foreigners. That advisory is patently false. Yes, there was this one attack on
an American who got stabbed in very unclear circumstances. But as far as
violence goes, incidents are far and few between. Deaths of foreigners that
occur here are mostly of elderly men having serious health problems already and
succumbing to them. Tropical climates are not really for the frail elderly
Western tourist. Of course, you get the occasional OD’ed tourist who shot up
and did not know what he/she bought on the street from some shady character.
This is a poor country and consequently you have quite a bit of petty crime,
bag snatching from a motorcycle, or at night when walking on deserted streets.
Burglaries is also one of the more prevalent crimes perpetrated here but these
are mainly in residences, as Cambodian people still tend to keep their
valuables and cash in the house. Hotels are spared as virtually all of them
have security, alarm systems, CCTV, etc. I have not read or heard about one
burglary in a hotel or guesthouse. As in any other developing country, if
tourists observe a few simple precautions they won’t fall victim to a crime.
Altogether, Sihanoukville has become a destination in its
own right as opposed to being an extension on an Indochina trip – but for the individual traveler mostly,
flashpackers and other mainstream tourists who have a normal budget but who
still like the comparatively low prices. The atmosphere is very much laid-back
and quiet, unlike most other, say Thai destinations. It is not yet a
world-class destination by any stretch of the imagination, although officials
like to fantasize it already is. They have a long way to go to reach that. Most
of all, officials will have to act rather than just hold meetings and talk.
They can do a lot to improve things by just cleaning up the trash in the city,
regulate the beach vendors, enforce sanitation regulations, etc. Now that most
of the power problems have become a thing of the past with the additional power
plants in full operation and the water
supply constant, Sihanoukville has shed some
of its bad reputation and is definitely worth a visit. It has come a long way. Sun-hungry
Europeans especially can spend their vacation here just like anywhere else.
They can enjoy a variety of waterfront activities, eat the local food,
particularly seafood, and relax in the sun with a drink in hand. In point of
fact, for instance the average stay at my hotel is 10 days. So there is a
tendency among some tourists to spend their entire vacation in Cambodia. After visiting Phnom Penh, Angkor Wat, a national park up north for the wildlife, or some other natural preserve, Sihanoukville is an ideal conclusion for a trip to Cambodia. This appears to be hanpening more and more and is a good sign for the tourist industry and in the end for the people of
Sihanoukville and Cambodia in general..
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