Crash crushes Cambodia's tourism sector

Crash crushes Cambodia's tourism sector

By Katya Robinson

PHNOM PENH (Reuter): A fatal plane crash at Phnom Penh's international airport last week has blackened the already dreary outlook for tourism in the troubled country.

Tourism, once one of the country's fastest-growing sectors, virtually dissolved in the wake of factional fighting in the capital of Phnom Penh in early July.

Last Wednesday's crash of a Vietnam Airlines flight that killed 64 may delay any recovery, analysts said last Friday.

"It's as if tourism had been on the ground half dead, and this were a kick to finish it off," said one business consultant.

Even Second Prime Minister Hun Sen, who deposed the ousted First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh on July 6, appeared aware of the double blow to Cambodia's image and tried to address it in a speech last Friday.

"The July clashes and the Sept. 3 plane crash are unprecedented events in 18 years," he said. "There's never been a foreign air accident here before."

Analysts said while the crash may prove to be no fault of Cambodians, the timing of the tragedy was nonetheless a tough blow to the country's image.

"It's not the kind of thing we needed now," said Thierry Douin, manager of the new five-star Intercontinental Hotel in Phnom Penh.

The task of those selling war-scarred Cambodia as a tourist destination has never been easy, but in recent years officials had succeeded in convincing thousands of foreigners that the country was a safe and fascinating place to visit.

The famed 10th-12th century temples at Angkor, and the relative peace that followed the 1993 elections, had lured thousands of foreigners here in recent years.

Finance officials said tourism last year accounted for one- third of all capital inflows into the country, with nearly 200,000 tourists visiting.

But now there are signs the boom may be going bust. Visitors in July this year totaled only 6,521, compared with nearly 20,000 the month before. Fewer than 4,000 of the visitors were tourists, and most of them came in the first week of July, before fighting broke out, tourism officials said.

Fighting erupted on July 5-6 between the forces of Hun Sen and those loyal to First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh, resulting in Hun Sen deposing his senior coalition partner.

Not only tourists are staying away. Minister of Tourism Veng Sereyvuth, a member of Ranariddh's party, is one of dozens of officials who have not returned to their old jobs since Ranariddh was ousted.

But despite the political turmoil, tourism officials blame the media, not recent events, for the problems.

Pictures of wounded soldiers and fleeing civilians from continued factional fighting in the northwest give people the wrong idea, said Sok Chenda, tourism undersecretary of state.

"We want to show the whole world and especially CNN (Cable News Network) that everything is going back to normal," he told Reuters.

Analysts weren't entirely convinced those assurances would undo the damage of recent events, however.

"There is a crucial issue of safety in Cambodia," said one Asian diplomat. "And the government needs a good public relations consultant to show what is positive here."