Viet tourists flock to see Nambodia, the Yuon colony

Vietnamese tourists flock to Cambodia


June, 28 2012
VNS

HA NOI — Vietnamese tourists are top of the list of foreign visitors to Cambodia, the Cambodian tourism ministry said.

The number of Vietnamese tourists visiting the country was about 300,000 out of the total 1.5 million holiday – makers in Cambodia in the first five months of this year.

Last year, Cambodia welcomed nearly 3 million foreign visitors including 600,000 Vietnamese.

Vietcon tourists top the list in Nambodia

Vietnamese tourists top list in Cambodia

May, 03 2012
VNS (Hanoi)

HCM CITY — Vietnamese tourists ranked top among foreign visitors to Cambodia in the first three months this year.

According to data released by the Cambodian Tourism Ministry, 179,000 Vietnamese tourists visited Cambodia from January to March, accounting for 18 per cent of total foreign arrivals.

South Korea was next with 151,000 or 15 per cent, followed by Chinese, Japanese, Russian and UK tourists.

In the first two days of this week, the country received more than 30,000 Vietnamese visitors, according Tith Chantha, general director of the tourism under the Cambodian Tourism Ministry.

Cambodia plugs Western tourist leak with Viet tourists

Phnom Penh and Angkor Wat remain the two major tourism drawcards for Cambodia

Thursday, 14 October 2010
eTravel Blackboard

Cambodia’s tourism industry has rebounded surprisingly well since the global economic crisis, though the sector still has a long way to go to get back to pre-crisis levels and encourage more tourism from Western countries.

According to government figures, arrival numbers to the Kingdom show a 15 per cent rise in total arrivals in the first eight months of 2010 compared to the same period last year, The Phnom Penh Post reported.

Most of the tourism gains came from the near 50 per cent increase in Vietnamese visitors – the largest inbound market for the Kingdom.

US visitors fell more than four per cent and UK visitors dropped 3.75 per cent to the end of August, a sign of lagging recovery.

Efforts by the government to counter the drop in tourists from the West by reducing traffic restrictions with Vietnam have been successful, but have also contributed to a shift in the visitor demographic towards lower-spending, shorter-term visitors.

The average international visitor spent about US$1 less per day in 2009 compared to 2008 – just under $112 – which resulted in a fall of around $2 million across the industry. The average visitor also stayed for a briefer period.

Cambodia’s tourism industry remains heavily reliant on its two major attractions – Angkor Wat and the capital, Phnom Penh.

The major obstacle for the tourism industry is encouraging visitors, Western in particular, to venture beyond these hotspots and explore more of the country.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism is targeting 2.4 million arrivals this year and 2.8 million for 2011, representing an optimistic year-on-year growth of 11 per cent and 16.7 per cent respectively.

More tourists may not bring salvation [- Viet tourists are not good news for Cambodia?]

Monday, 11 October 2010
Steve Finch
The Phnom Penh Post

CAMBODIA’S tourism industry has enjoyed surprising success in encouraging foreign visitors to the Kingdom following the global economic crisis – arrival numbers were up last year and continue to soar in 2010. However, although more people are entering Cambodia, key indicators show the sector has a long way to go before the numbers of the pre-crisis era fully return.

Though government figures show a 15 percent rise in total arrivals in the first eight months of 2010 compared to last year, most of these gains came from the near-50 percent climb in Vietnamese visitors – already the most numerous travellers to the Kingdom. Travel industry executives will hardly be excited by this statistic as many Vietnamese come to Cambodia for only a few days and are considered to spend much less on average than tourists from North America and Europe.

United States visitors fell more than 4 percent and those from the United Kingdom dropped 3.75 percent to the end of August, a sign the sluggish global recovery is still hurting. Travellers look to be choosing conservative destinations rather than far-flung Cambodia.

The government has done a good job balancing the drop in Western tourists with increases from the region – certainly opening more border gates and reducing traffic restrictions with Vietnam has helped. But this has contributed to a structural shift in the tourism industry towards lower-spending, short-term visitors.

Government data show the average international visitor spent about US$1 less per day in 2009 compared to 2008 – just under $112 – which resulted in a fall of around $2 million across the industry. The average visitor stayed just 6.45 days last year, compared to 6.65 days in 2008. This statistic represents deeper structural problems in the sector, as the average stay was falling even before the onset of the economic crisis, a sign that more people are coming but are moving through more quickly – an effect attributable not just to more short-term visitors from Vietnam.

Cambodia has struggled to establish itself as a destination that demands attention outside of Angkor Wat and the capital Phnom Penh. The persistent challenge of attracting airlines to fly to Sihanoukville testifies to this problem – there are still no scheduled flights to the beach resort’s recently upgraded airport. This is not likely to be for no reason – Air Asia in particular has expanded all over the region. But the carrier only chooses destinations offering a good opportunity to make a profit after conducting market research, just like any airline.

The key for Cambodia’s tourism industry is, therefore, to encourage visitors to explore outside Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, while trying to recover Western tourists.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism is targeting 2.4 million arrivals this year and 2.8 million for 2011, which would represent impressive year-on-year growth of 11 percent and 16.7 percent respectively. However, the key question remains: Will the industry actually bring in more money?

Travel firms told to keep Vietnamese tourists away from [Cambodian] casinos

A casino in Cambodia

16/03/2010

VietNamNet Bridge – The National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has instructed travel firms to follow the nation’s laws and regulations strictly when they send Vietnamese tourists overseas. The travel firms may not design tours that include visits to casinos.

The VNAT advisory reported in Thoi Bao Kinh Te Saigon (Saigon Economic News) is evidently prompted in part by the proliferation of casinos in nearby destinations, including a number established just over the border in Cambodia.

In the official letter to travel agencies, VNAT General Director Nguyen Van Tuan told them to avoid bringing Vietnamese tourists to unsafe places. The firms were told to report to the authority immediately as soon as troubles occur.

VNAT also ordered province and city tourism departments to examine the outbound tourism operations of travel firms.

VNAT says that some travel firms have been found to provide substandard service when taking Vietnamese tourists abroad, and there have been incidents relating to tourists’ safety.

(In February 2010, a party of 22 Vietnamese tourists met an accident on the way from Pattaya to Bangkok which killed one and injured six.)

Responding to the VNAT directive, travel firms commented that tourists who want to will still find their way to casinos, whether or not gambling stops are programmed into a tour. They always have free time in the evening to go whatever they want.

Nguyen Minh Quyen, Deputy Director of Ben Thanh Tourist, said that few travel firms include a casino visit in their tour programmes. It is the tourists who decide whether to go to a casino or not, he added.

The head of a Hanoi travel firm agreed. Despite the ban, he said, tourists will have no trouble finding a casino to gamble if they want. They can catch a taxi to one and pay all other expenses themselves, while no one can control their time.

However, Nguyen Minh Man, a senior executive at Vietravel, said that his company will work directly with foreign partners to remove casinos from tour destinations after studying the VNAT directive. Man said that Vietravel and its partners will identify alternative sites for Vietnamese tourists to visit.

Quyen of Ben Thanh Tourist said that he supports the decision by VNAT to discourage Vietnamese people from patronizing casinos during their trips abroad. “It is a kind of waste of foreign currencies,” he explained, “unreasonable when Vietnam every year has to spend billions dong to advertise Vietnam as a vacation destination.”

China last year issued a similar directive, forbidding travel agents from taking Chinese citizens to Vietnam to gamble.

Analysts here comment that the ban on leading Vietnamese tourists to casinos is just a halfway measure. They point to ads for trips to destinations like Las Vegas (US), Malaysia’s Genting Highlands and Macau on the websites of some big travel firms that include text that promises attractive nights at casinos.

For example, one ad notes the ‘chance to enter the night world of Las Vegas City’, or the ‘chance to discover the biggest casino in South East Asia’ or ‘seek good luck in casinos.’

The 24 hour casinos that have opened on the Cambodian border and in Phnom Penh and the big casinos in Malaysia and Macau have proven to be very seductive to Vietnamese tourists.

Vietnamese top list of foreign arrivals in Cambodia

04/27/2009
VOV News (Hanoi)

More than 79,700 Vietnamese visited Cambodia over the past three months, marking an increase of 49 percent over the same period last year, according to the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism.

Cambodian Tourism Minister Thong Khon said Vietnamese tourists outnumbered visitors from the Republic of Korea to account for the largest part of foreign visitors to Cambodia in the first quarter of this year.

About 62,600 RoK visitors came to Cambodia in the reviewed period, a remarkable reduction from 97,500 in the corresponding period last year, said the tourism ministry.

To lure visitors in time of the global economic crisis, the Cambodian Tourism Ministry has turned to less-affected countries in addition to promoting new eco-tours.

The ministry has especially streamlined entry-exit procedures for tourists from the neighbouring countries of Vietnam, Thailand and Laos, allowing them to enter the three Cambodian border provinces with laissez-passers and stay for a week instead of three days as applied before.

Chairman of the Cambodian Travel Association, Ang Kim Eang, was optimistic that political stability would help bring more foreign visitors to his country.

Arrivals down 3.4 percent in first quarter, says govt

Friday, 24 April 2009
Written by May Kunmakara and Kay Kimsong
The Phnom Penh Post

Latest figures up to March confirm that the sector is in decline as Vietnamese surpass South Koreans as top visitors to the Kingdom

THE Ministry of Tourism on Thursday reported a 3.4 percent drop in foreign arrivals in the first quarter of 2009.

Kong Sopheareak, director of the ministry's Statistics and Information Department, said 622,288 foreigners arrived in Cambodia during the first three months of the year, compared with 644,205 during the same period last year.

The quarter-on-quarter comparison also revealed that Vietnam replaced South Korea as the biggest source of visitors to Cambodia.

The number of Vietnamese arrivals increased by 49 percent, from 53,386 during the first quarter of 2008 to 79,724 in 2009. The number of South Korean arrivals fell from 97,536 during the first quarter of 2008 to 62,633 in 2009.

The number of Japanese arrivals also fell markedly, from 54,149 to 41,745, while the number of American visitors changed only slightly, from 47,612 to 46,616.

The number of arrivals from Thailand fell from 40,611 in 2008 to 27,050 in 2009, making it the eighth-largest supplier of visitors to the Kingdom.

"We have seen that tourists from Vietnam during this quarter have increased, while Thailand has been the opposite," Kong Sopheareak said.

"We are in a stable situation ... there will be a slight increase in unemployment."

Both Kong Sopheareak and Ang Kim Eang, president of the Cambodia Association of Travel Agents, said the overall decline was insignificant and paled in comparison to declines seen in other countries, particularly elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

"I don't really think it is a big problem for us," Ang Kim Eang said.

"We are in a stable situation, even though there will be a slight increase in unemployment in the sector. If tourism dropped between 20 and 30 percent, that would be a big problem that we would care about."

He said that the country's political stability was a big factor in its ability to keep visitor numbers fairly level.

Minister of Tourism Thong Khon said he was encouraged that the sector did not rely solely on arrrivals from Thailand.
"Now, Vietnam is the main tourism source for us," he said.

Looking ahead, he said the ministry planned to target potential visitors in countries that had not been significantly affected by the financial crisis as well as to promote the Kingdom's ecotourism destinations.

"We will also try to make it easier for tourists to make it through border checkpoints, especially from nearby countries," he said.

Air traffic

Local media reported last week that the number of visitors passing through Phnom Penh International Airport dropped by 12.5 percent in the first quarter of 2009, while Siem Reap International Airport experienced a drop of 26 percent.

Mao Havannall, a secretary of state at the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA), said he did not believe the decline was so dramatic but that he could not provide exact figures.

"My point of view is that the airline industry won't really be affected much because everyone needs airlines," he said.

Kao Sivorn, director of flight operations at the SSCA, also said he believed air traffic had declined somewhat but not to the extent reported in local media.

For example, he said, airlines that typically offered five flights a week might have dropped down to four.

He also said the recent state of emergency declared in Bangkok had not significantly affected the number of travellers arriving from there, adding that Bangkok Airways did not cancel a single flight.

Number of Vietnamese Visitors Jumps [-Are they back to visit their former colony and future expansion territories?]

By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
16 December 2008

The number of Vietnamese tourists visiting Cambodia jumped nearly 75 percent in the first ten months of 2008, coming in at No. 2 for the first time in 15 years, officials said Tuesday.

The 176,600 Vietnamese visitors, up from 102,577 in the same period last year, was second only to the number of Korean visitors, 234,880, according to figures from the Ministry of Tourism.

Attributing the increase to improved Cambodian infrastructure and Vietnamese livelihoods, Tourism Minister Thong Khon said Tuesday most visitors went to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.

Trinh Ba Cam attributed the rise to “a situation in Cambodia where there is enough stability and peace.”

The rise in Vietnamese visitors also parallels the rise in Vietnamese investment in the country, mainly in agriculture, hydroelectricity, telecommunications and banking.

Overall, Cambodia’s tourism sector—the second-most important engine for the economy—saw more than 2 million visitors in 2007, bringing with them $1.4 billion in revenue.

Direct bus link between Prey Nokor and Siem Reap

May 16, 2008
Cambodia, Vietnam launch direct bus route to Angkor temples

Phnom Penh - Vietnamese company Saigon Passenger Transport Company (Sapaco Tourist) is launching a new luxury bus service from the Vietnamese capital Ho Chi Minh direct to Cambodia's northern tourism hub of Siem Reap, a company spokesman said Friday.

The new nine-hour, 500-kilometre trip cuts hours off the former route through the Cambodian capital and is just the latest in a stream of Vietnamese tourism investments in Cambodia as its travel industry booms, according to the Tourism Ministry.

The new route, which crosses into Cambodia through Vietnam's southern Tay Ninh Province, launches Monday and one-way tickets will cost 24 dollars, Sapaco's spokesman said.

Siem Reap's Angkor Wat temple is Cambodia's largest tourism attraction, bringing in the bulk of the country's more than 2 million visitors last year, and the route is expected to prove especially popular with budget travellers, the company predicted.