Phnom Penh’s bright lights luring more visitors than Siem Reap

A breakdown of Phnom Penh’s visitors.  SUPPLIED

Analysts say the key catalyst of change for the city is its proximity to the country’s leading private and public sector headquarters and strategic location for China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The BRI now spans across Cambodia and runs all the way south to the Gulf of Thailand and beyond into the South China Sea.

Citing the critical business and tourism potential of the city is C9’s newly released Phnom Penh Hotel Market Update 2020 which reports that Asia is the dominant source region for visitors, representing a 79 percent market share. More telling is that 66 percent of the regional traffic is from mainland China.

This graph shows the upward trend in arrivals . SUPPLIED

Ranking the top five geographic source markets has China at the top with 52 percent, followed in order by Malaysia, USA, Japan and Thailand.

C9’s report underscores that according to the latest available data there are 313 hotels with 19,337 keys and 523 guests houses in Phnom Penh.  It’s a clear sign how fast-paced growth is affecting the hospitality sector and is demonstrated by the fact that there are presently 15 new hotels in the pipeline with 7,849 keys. A totel of 13 of the upcoming properties are internationally branded by global hotel management groups including Marriott, Hyatt, Shangri-La and ACCOR.

As for the city’s hotel sector, there are challenges ahead with a spike of newer and bigger hotels and it has yet to be seen how they will penetrate the existing hotel market and cope with COVID-19. C9’s Managing Director Bill Barnett said: “The next two years will see a massive transformation in the accommodation supply because 10 new branded properties are forecast to enter the supply chain between now and 2022. While business travellers are the core guests, the task facing hoteliers is how to attract other segments including tourists and the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibition sector.Phnom Penh finds itself in a similar situation as other Asian central business district gateway capital hubs such as Jakarta and Yangon, where hotels are defined by weekday business travellers. Manila, on the other hand, has been able to capitalise on the gaming sector to grow the leisure segment and provides a more balanced model for the future.”

As for the prospects ahead, Barnett said: “Cambodia’s new economic model remains unique in the region given the confluence of the BRI, although it’s sheer location is strategic by nature. With a young emerging working class and the influence of globalisation, its economic highs are further in the future, so there remains a lot of work to be done.” Source from Khmertimes.