Apsara Authority officials are having trouble persuading developers to build hotels in a designated area outside of Siem Reap town—a scheme designed to slow down the recent boom in hotel construction in and around the town center.
Hoteliers and local authorities have criticized the planned Hotel Zone as inappropriately located and lacking sufficient infrastructure to support development.
The idea of the special zone came after experts at the Bayon Symposium in Siem Reap in December warned that the rate at which large hotels are draining the water table below the area could weaken or even destroy Angkor’s ancient temples.
Growing levels of pollution and traffic congestion in the small town are also being blamed on the booming tourist industry surrounding the temples of Angkor.
Hotels of up to 300 rooms are springing up at what some consider an alarming rate. According to Siem Reap First Deputy Governor Oung Oeun, there were 10 construction projects of three-, four- and five-star hotels in Siem Reap last year. As a result, he said, little space remains in the town for more constructions of this size.
Today, Siem Reap has a total of 53 hotels, offering a total of 24,000 rooms. Oung Oeun estimates the town will need between 35,000 and 37,000 rooms by 2004, in order to house up to 800,000 tourists—an increase that could exert further strain on the town’s already overstretched resources.
But the proposed Hotel Zone, which lies on a 560-hectare plot owned by the Apsara Authority 2 km outside Siem Reap, is a poor solution, according to Oung Oeun, as the area currently has no water or electricity supplies.
“I don’t think hotel owners are interested in building hotels in the Hotel Zone,” Oung Oeun said this week. “They are asking me all the time, ‘How do you build a hotel with no infrastructure?’”
Oung Oeun suggested an alternative area along National Route 6 toward Kompong Thom province, which already has electricity and water supplies, as a preferable site for development.
Sokimex President Sok Kong, whose company owns a 20 percent stake in the Apsara Authority, also described the Hotel Zone plan as premature.
“I think [the Apsara Authority] did this too fast. Siem Reap still has a lot of space for hotel construction,” Sok Kong said. “There are no environmental problems because of the hotel industry in [Siem Reap], if the government would make some hotels build waste water treatment plants.
But Soeung Kong, deputy director-general of the Apsara Authority, defended the zone as a sound idea that is still very much in the planning stages: “There is no infrastructure, but the new French-funded road will soon be completed, This is the first step. Water and electricity could be installed in the next two years,” he added.
Infrastructure in the whole of Siem Reap province is set to improve over the coming months. The Japanese government is funding a 10-megawatt power plant, construction of which is due to begin in November, Oung Oeun said. The plant should generate enough power to supply the entire province, and is due to be completed in mid-2004, he said.
The government is also planning to start work on a $200,000 water supply project in April, which should provide water for the whole of Siem Reap town, Oung Oeun said.
