Sihanoukville in Cambodia is being marketed as a the new tropical getaway, competing with the likes of Thailand's Phuket and Indonesia's Bali, with pristine beaches rivaling Asia's best holiday destinations, new and modern 5-star hotels, a reopened airport and a planned golf course, Sihanoukville in Cambodia is poised to jump into the global tourism arena.
Thousands of tourists are already lured to Cambodia by the ancient Angkor Wat temple complex but few other sights attract their attention or their desperately sought-after dollars.
Sniffing opportunity, the government of Cambodia and many private investors are lining up to position the southwestern port town of Sihanoukville as a tropical tourist getaway, competing with the likes of Thailand's Phuket and Indonesia's Bali.
If we compare, the potential is better than Phuket because of the quality of sand and beaches, the sand is white and the sea water is much cleaner. The offshore islands still have beautiful coral reefs and there is plenty of fishing opportunities, says Teng Huy, the tourist minister of Cambodia.
Sihanoukville, a port town established in the years 1950, remains Cambodia's youngest city. Sihanoukville became a popular beach resort among the elite of Cambodia until the rise of the Khmer Rouge, which embarked on a genocide that demolished the country.
Sihanoukville was re-discovered by backpackers in the 1990s and today retains its sleepy, faded charm, with the occasional cow wandering through the streets and delicious little ramshackle restaurants on many of its white sand beaches.
The new Sokha Hotel has extended Sihanoukville's appeal beyond backpackers to well-heeled travelers by opening its 15-hectare, 180-room hotel in April, the first five-star hotel and resort operation in Sihanoukville. The beach product is excellent, it's top class, great sand and a wonderful sea and the hotel is running well, says Sokha Hotel manager Anthony O'Neill, a 12-year veteran in the Asian tourism industry.
More help is however needed from the government of Cambodia to rebuild the infrastructure shattered from conflict that only ended in 1998, and we need more and better attractions, to secure the beach of Sihanoukville on the international tourist circuit, O'Neill said further.
A nine-hole golf course is being developed by Malaysia's Ariston Holdings along nearby Occheuteal beach. The golf course concept is being raced along, because if you can't get high class attractions, you simply can't contain people in a holiday resort and even think you're going to challenge Bali, Phuket and even Pattaya, O'Neill added.
The quirky art deco Independence Hotel in Sihanoukville, which drew fashionable crowds in the 1960s prior to the 1975 rise of the Khmer Rouge, is due to re-open by September, while a new 120-room hotel is packaged with the nine-hole golf course project.
Scheduled flights, seen as vital to Sihanoukville's rejuvenation, are on the horizon with the reopening of Sihanoukville's airport to chartered flights. A huge runway extension is to be completed before the end of the year, making Sihanoukville in Cambodia a potential tourist destination for regional airlines.
Martin Standbury, the project manager for the golf course due to open soon, says Sihanoukville may be still a little sleepy for now, but its future potential is enormous. For now tourists get a bit bored. There's the beach, cheap beer, seafood. But we need more attractions and excursion possibilities, Martin said.
I reckon there is huge potential here over the next three to five years, not just for foreigners but the locals, Martin says, noting that Cambodia's emerging middle class has begun holidaying here again.
Business owners, many of them foreigners who were traveling through Cambodia but decided to stay, captivated by the landscape and laidback lifestyle, say they are noticing a steady increase in numbers of tourists.
Despite the anti-Thai riots in Phnom Penh (January last year), the SARS epidemic and the terror attacks in America, my trade has increased in the last year as has everybody else's, says hotel and bar owner Richard Blackley.
Teng Huy's office puts the number of tourists who visited Sihanoukville last year at just over 114,000, 6% less than 2002 due to the regional SARS outbreak, but for the first three months this year the figure jumped to over 29% compared to last year.
There are currently four casinos in Sihanoukville and they are all expanding, casinos visitors are mostly from nearby countries and combine the gambling fun with a beach holiday.
Blackley, who moved here four years ago, says the town was once awash with small arms and crime, like the rest of Cambodia, but has normalized and authorities are making an huge effort to renovate the town. Infrastructure is being repaired, government buildings are being rebuild, you can see improvements with parks and gardens, and the race to buy land on or near the beaches is phenomenal, Blackley says.
I'm extremely optimistic. Every day something new is being build or repaired. Sihanoukville is very beautiful , the beach, the sea, the seafood and the tropical scenery. More and more foreigners are coming to Cambodia and live in Sihanoukville, Blackley added.
