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Cambodia: Further fiscal woes for tourism sector
The Government on Tuesday announced the suspension of the annual Khmer New Year celebration, in a bid to stop the spread of the Novel Coronavirus.
The move will spell further fiscal woes for the already embattled tourism industry.Speaking during a press conference, Prime Minister Hun Sen said the decision was made in a bid to avoid “cluster infections”, caused by large gatherings in local communities.
The suspension will see government institutions and all private sectors continuing their work as usual during the upcoming holidays. However, the Premier did say that the public holiday may be reinstated at a later time when the global pandemic is over. Traditionally, Cambodia celebrates the Khmer New Year around April.
This year, the celebration was set to kick off next week on Monday 13 April, ending on Thursday 15 April. During the holidays, thousands of Cambodians typically travel to their home province to spend time with family and friends.
But there are fears that the public health measure could cause even more financial heartache for the tourism industry, which has already been dealt a body blow by the global pandemic.
Chenda Clais, president of the Cambodia Hotel Association, told Khmer Times on Tuesday that some hotels and guesthouses were hoping to generate a small amount of revenue in the upcoming holidays. But those hopes have been dashed.
“Cambodian families were planning to take the opportunity to visit the now quiet tourist sites. But I think the government made the right decision,” she said.
In 2019, 4.6million Cambodians travelled inside the country during Khmer New Year, a 67 percent increase over the year before, according to figures from the Ministry of Tourism. Further statistics showed that 83,000 foreigners visited the country during the same period, a 98 percent increase.
Cambodia is following the Thai government’s lead, who also postponed the country’s Songkran festivals. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) calculated that their own tourism industry will lose around 20 billion baht (about $610million) in revenues.
But some travel-related Cambodian companies have already felt the pinch. Yuy Vibol, general manager of local bus company Giant Ibis, which offers a range of routes including those to Siem Reap, Sihanoukville and Kampot, and connections between the Kingdom with neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam, said he is not sure how many more financial troubles the business can weather.
“There used to be at least 30 passenger on every on bus, but that has been reduced to 15 and below,” he said
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50710647/further-fiscal-woes-for-tourism-sector/