Cambodia could experience an increase in tourism in the wake of the recent bombing on the tourist island of Bali, government and tourism officials said Thursday.
“I think tourism might increase in Cambodia, but I wouldn’t say tourists will stop going to Indonesia,” said Meng Hieng, the head of the Cambodian Association of Travel Agencies. “It was the same after the Sept 11 attacks—people are concerned with terrorism.”
An official with the Ministry of Tourism said the bombing would not adversely affect tourism in Cambodia, despite its regional proximity to Indonesia.
“The Bali bombing will have no affect on Cambodian tourism,” said Thong Khon, secretary of state for the Ministry Tourism, saying that Cambodia could in fact experience a rise in tourists who are re-routing their holiday trips from Bali to Cambodia.
Some tour agencies have already received requests from tourists to change, said Pierre Jungo, of Diethelm Travel.
Diethelm Travel has so far re-routed one tour group from Bali to Cambodia, Pierre Jungo said.
“It could be that people will go to Thailand now instead of Bali, and they could combine their Thailand trip with Cambodia,” he said. “We will probably profit from the bad experience of another country.”
He added, however, that Diethelm Travel has also had one tourist cancel her trip to Cambodia “because she was afraid war might break out with Iraq [and the US].”
Karen Lanyon, the charge d’Affairs for the Australian Embassy, said all Australian tourists should be especially alert wherever they travel in Southeast Asia and suggested all Australian tourists to visit the Australian government’s Web site, www.dfat.gov.au, for any travel warning updates. Australian citizens suffered the most casualties and injuries in the Bali blast.
Although current tourism statistics are available not yet available, the most recent monthly Ministry of Tourism figures show that 191,454 foreign tourists and business persons have traveled to Cambodia from Jan 2002 to Aug 2002. In august 2002, 39,119 foreign tourists arrived to Cambodia by air, a 22 percent increase from the same time the previous year, the figures show.
