Cambodia Bets Casinos Can Boost Tourism [-More revenue for Xok Kong?]

An artist's rendering of the Thansur Bokor Highland Resort under development (Thansur Bokor Highland Resort)

Xok Kong - Chairman of Sokimex and a crony of Hun Xen

April 3, 2012
By PATRICK BARTA
The Wall Street Journal

Cambodian developers are betting that casinos can make the tiny Southeast Asian country a bigger draw for high-spending tourists.

The nation of 15 million people has more than 25 casinos, but most are small affairs in rough-and-tumble border towns that cater to hard-core Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese gamblers. Now, as the country continues to stabilize after political chaos in the 1970s, '80s and '90s, developers are pushing ahead with more-ambitious resorts hoping to attract a broader clientele. But some skeptics say the odds of success are long.

Among the planned developments is the sprawling Thansur Bokor Highland Resort, two hours south of the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. The resort held a soft opening last week and is expected to open officially by midyear, with 418 rooms, a convention center, spa facilities, scenic trails and an "edutainment center" for children, with a library and board games. Developed by a unit of Sokimex Group, a Cambodian conglomerate that controls much of the country's oil industry, the resort also is notable for its location along a cliff's edge nearly 1,100 meters (3,600 feet) above sea level that often is covered in clouds.

City on a hill sparks little talk [-Another project by Hun Xen's crony Xok Kong]

An elaborate scale model, featuring hotels and hundreds of houses, shows what Bokor Mountain is intended to look like when development is completed in about 15 years. The model is housed in a showroom on the mountain, where a casino is set to open in about two weeks. Photo by Derek Stout

A construction worker cuts steel rebar in front of the Thansur Bokor Highland Resort on Bokor Mountain. Photo by Derek Stout

Tourists snap pictures in front of a new Buddha statue that is nearing completion. Photo by Derek Stout

Labourers use wire, rocks and steel rebar to construct barriers, meant to protect against landslides, along the road leading to the top of Bokor Mountain. Photo by Derek Stout

Along the road that curves its way up Bokor Mountain, large swaths of densely forested areas have been cleared. Photo by Derek Stout

Friday, 16 March 2012
Shane Worrell and Phak Seangly
The Phnom Penh Post

A casino complex on top of Kampot province’s Bokor Mountain will open in less than two weeks – but environmental groups are strangely quiet about the effects the development, the size of a small city, could have on Cambodia’s natural heritage.

The complex, in the Preah Monivong National Park, included a casino and hotel and would have a “soft opening” late this month before an official opening mid-year when construction was completed, Thansur Bokor Highland Resort chief executive Dr Ngin Banal said.

“Our primary target market is the greater Mekong region, including Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. Our secondary market is southern China and Korea,” he told the Post this week.

In January, 2008, the government granted the Sokha Hotel Group, owned by Sokimex Investment Group, a 99-year lease for the US$1 billion development.

Based on the original plans, the project will also include a 700-room, 18-storey five-star hotel, as well as conference rooms, bars, wedding facilities and two Arnold Palmer-designed golf courses.

A showroom halfway up the mountain displays a detailed scale model of how the national park will look in about 15 years, when hundreds of houses and villas will stretch back from the mountains southern edge.

Sok Kong's Sokimex has siphoned the majority of funds recouped from tourist entrance fees to the world heritage site

Sok Kong

Angkor corruption alleged

Monday, 12 March 2012
Meas Sokchea and Bridget Di Certo
The Phnom Penh Post

An anonymous group on Saturday filed a corruption complaint with the Anti-Corruption Unit against senator Sok Kong’s Sokimex company’s management of the Angkor Wat temple complex.

The complaint, dated March 10, alleges Sokimex has siphoned the majority of funds recouped from tourist entrance fees to the world heritage site and that the contract between the government and Sokimex is “irregular” and lacks transparency.

“If [ACU head Om Yentieng] does not take legal action and investigate, this means that [Om Yentieng] and Prime Minister Hun Sen are leaders who are as corrupt as [Sokimex] too, it is like a proverb saying ‘a toad selling ringworm medicine’,” the complaint states.

Om Yentieng could not be reached for comment yesterday, but ACU spokesman Keo Remy welcomed the complaint filed by anonymous people and guaranteed that despite the anonymity of the complaint, an investigation would ensue if it was worthy.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Angkor Wat

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Sinatoon: Greedy Xok Kong

Cartoon by V. Sina

Hun Xen is mad - Op-Ed by Uon Sim

Click on the article in Khmer to zoom in

$60 per week to visit Angkor - Poem in Khmer by Hin Sithan with English translation

Angkor Wat revenues rise more than 20pc [-Total amount of revenue and distribution still a state secret?]

Tuesday, 09 November 2010
May Kunmakara
The Phnom Penh Post

ANGKOR Wat ticket sales revenue rose more than 20 percent so far this year to the end of October, compared with the same period last year, the Apsara Authority said yesterday.

Director General Bun Narith would not give exact revenue figures, but said political stability, good security and economic recovery had led to an increase in tourists visiting the temples.

“We have got political stability and we keep tourists safer during their visits, making them very confident to enjoy our country — but the recovery of the economy also contributed to the growth,” he said.

He told The Post last year that 2009 revenue from ticket sales dropped to around US$27 million from nearly $30 million in 2008.

Bun Narith said most tourists visiting Angkor Wat this year were from the region — hailing from countries such as Vietnam, Singapore and Korea – but the number of tourists from Western countries was growing slowly.

The number of foreign tourists to visit the temple complex rose about 24 percent in the first nine months, to 804,170 from 648,972 tourists, according to official figures from Apsara Authority.

Bun Narith said he hoped revenue would increase by more than 20 percent this year over last year, but added he was not sure whether it could exceed 2008 revenues.

“Now, we are in the dry season, so there will be more Western tourists coming,” he said.

Foreign tourists pay $20 to visit the temples for one day, $40 for three days and $60 for a weeklong visit.

Tourist numbers have been on the rise all year.

In the first nine months of this year, the number of foreign tourists visiting the Kingdom has increased nearly 15 percent compared to the same period of 2009.

A total of 1,803,180 tourists entered the Kingdom via land, air and sea in the first nine months, a 14.6 percent increase on 1,573,940 tourists in the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Tourism.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING NGUON SOVAN AND CHUN SOPHAL

Two more concessions for the Vietnamese Sokha Hotel Group

18 Feb 2009
By Kang Kallyan
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Tola Ek
Click here to read the article in French

The Sokha Hotel Group, whose CEO is also the chairman of the Sokimex oil company, has obtained from the government the approval for two concession contracts: one for the development of the Bokor national park, and the second one for the development of the Kirirom national park.

The official signing of the contract took place this morning, on 18 Feb, during the groundbreaking inauguration of the construction site for a 5-star hotel at the top of Bokor. The Sokha Hotel Group, just as it was engaged to do last year, had already undertaken the renovation of the road leading to the top of the mountain. Villas, restaurants and casinos will see the daylight soon with a total investment amounting to several billions of dollars.

The history of the Bokor park goes all the way back to the French protectorate era. Created in 1922, it became a popular tourist resort for people who came here for the casino gambling. After the war, it was destroyed and the site was completely abandoned while the infrastructures were left in ruin.