PHNOM PHEN - International tourist arrivals are expected to fall this year due to the global economic slowdown and this will have a knock-on effect in slowing down growth in the services sector, according to a Cambodian Ministry of Economy and Finance report.
“The growth of the number of international tourist arrivals further slowed down to 2.6% in the first half of 2016, compared to 4.6% in the same period of 2015 and earnings from the tourism sector could possibly be lower given the expected decrease in high-spending tourists from Western Europe and Russia,” the Khmer Times on Thursday quoted the Ministry of Economy and Finance report entitled “Cambodia Macroeconomic Monitor Mid-Year Assessment 2016” as saying.
The report, released on Tuesday, pointed out that due to a fall in tourist arrivals from affluent countries because of the global economic slowdown, the services sector will only grow 6.7% this year ‒ compared to 7.1% last year.
“Annual growth in the services, after peaking at 8.7% in 2014, has been on a downward path, and this trend is likely to continue in 2016. Growth in the services sector fell from 8.7% in 2014 to 7.1% in 2015,” read the report.
According to the ministry report, the slowdown was across the board in all subsectors, except in transport and communications.
The mid-year assessment report also cited Myanmar as the country posing strong competition to Cambodia’s tourism sector and said the underinvestment in the country’s tourism-related infrastructure and other support services, together with a lack of skilled human resources in the hotels and hospitality industry, further worsened prospects for the sector.
Kong Sophearak, director of the statistics department at the Ministry of Tourism, agreed that there was a slowdown in tourist arrivals for the first half of the year.
“The slowdown in tourist arrivals will affect the services sector, especially hotels and restaurants in Siem Reap ‒ since it is a main tourist destination with Angkor Wat as the centre of attraction,” said Sophearak.
Nuon Teviphea, general manager of Aspara Angkor Hotel, told the Khmer Times that his hotel is currently seeing low occupancy rates, and he expected this to continue until the end of the year.
“We are losing customers because they prefer to travel to Myanmar and Vietnam,” he said.
Teviphea said neighbouring countries offered better tour packages compared to Cambodia, which only focuses on temple tours around Angkor Wat.
Thourn Sinan, chairman of the Cambodian chapter of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, told the Khmer Times that although the drop in tourist arrivals could affect the hotels and hospitality sector, the industry was strong enough to cope.
“This is not a surprise to me. Last year, we had a slowdown in tourist arrivals but we managed to survive. So we expect to survive again this year.”