Not seen as mono destination, its positioning as “extension” needs to be addressed, says All Dreams’ Guichandut
IF there’s one lesson Cambodia has learnt from Covid, it’s that its travel fortunes should not be tethered to any other country’s or the “Indochina” region. Because it’s found that despite it being the first South-east Asian country to fully reopen borders last November 15, with the simplest rules for entry (one on-arrival test and that’s it), inbound bookings have been very slow.
That’s because most of its leisure travel business, especially out of longhaul markets, have come via either Vietnam or Thailand. Either sold as part of an extension from those two destinations or as part of the Indochina region, with Angkor Wat as its main attraction, Cambodia has not been seen in those markets as a stand-alone destination or worth visiting beyond the ancient temples.
Said Jacques Guichandut, managing director of All Dreams Cambodia, who’s been involved in the tour operating business in the country since 1997, “One of the things that surfaced during discussions at CATA (Cambodian Association of Travel Agents) is that 70% of the business was controlled by DMCs in Vietnam. They were the ones who had direct contact with the clients, not the agents in Cambodia.”
At the same time, “Cambodia – Angkor Wat – has always been seen by Europeans and Americans as an extension of a trip to Thailand and Vietnam, so even with the best reopening conditions, people don’t really know. It’s not on the map of the international tourist as a mono destination.”
Citing Abercombie & Kent as an example, he said that 95% of the high end operator’s clients visited only Siem Reap and came from Thailand or Vietnam extensions and, as a result, this pipeline of business would not materialise this year due to the stricter conditions of reopening in Thailand, and Vietnam’s borders still closed at this stage.
The industry is now aware of the need to address this problem and it is understood a new digital marketing campaign to position Cambodia as a stand-alone destination and worth visiting beyond the temples is in the works.
However, Guichandut is well aware of the challenges in changing customer perceptions and habits. When borders reopened in Cambodia, he reached out to tour operator partners in Europe to promote Cambodia but was met with resistance.
The other lesson learnt is not to be too reliant on one market. Prior to the pandemic, 36% of tourist arrivals to Cambodia came from China – the complete loss of that market has been devastating for many inbound businesses in the country.
In 2019, Cambodia welcomed 6,160,592 international visitors and earned US$4,919 million in tourism receipts. In 2020, visitor numbers dropped by 80% to 1,306,143 and tourism receipts levelled off at US$1,023 million. Last year saw further drops – arrivals dropped another 85% to 196,495 and tourism receipts bottomed out at US$184 million.
One positive development, said Guichandut, has been the massive improvement in infrastructure throughout the country. The French executive, who first visited Cambodia in 1992, when he was working at the Saigon Floating Hotel, said he’s been most impressed with the development in Sihanoukville, which recently hosted the ASEAN Tourism Forum.
“We now have five star hotels to the standard of Hong Kong and Singapore, and the service standards are very impressive. The road to the airport has also been improved, this gives us opportunity to promote Cambodia beyond Siem Reap and Phnom Penh,” said Guichandut.
The four founders of All Dreams Cambodia (from right): Jacques Guichandut, Neav Neary Panhchak Pisey, Phu Many and Huot Kheang.
All Dreams was founded in 2013 by Guichandut and three other Khmer owners, following his departure from Asian Trails. With an experienced team of 38 staff, it has managed to ride out the storm without laying off any staff and keeping its four permanent tour guides on payroll.
It also launched three new brands. “All Dreams, A Way of Life” is a new unit to develop the domestic market which has now evolved into a high-end outbound business; Ubiquest Cambodia, an urban game and event agency to go after the corporate team-building and events market; and La Conciergerie, for high end private tours using instant messaging as the main means of communication.
These three new business lines are showing promise as life in Cambodia is more or less normal – Cambodia is among the top 10 countries in the world in vaccine performance and Phnom Penh is the most vaccinated capital in the world, with 100% of its adult population fully vaccinated. The government has set the goal of having the entire country vaccinated by early 2022.
“Our outgoing business is aimed at high end travellers, both domestically and overseas, and we are looking at destinations such as Maldives, Europe, Africa,” said Guichandut.
Finding strength in numbers, it joined the boutique travel and event collective, Beyond Limits, which includes DMC members across 47 countries. It created five virtual experiences with Beyond Experience to give travellers further afield an appetite for Cambodia. And with changing distribution channels to online, it is also working with tours and activities platform BeMyGuest to sell short trips, first to the Singapore and Malaysia markets.
One of the biggest investments it’s made is in sustainability. It signed up with Travelife, an Amsterdam-based training, management and certification initiative for tourism companies committed to reaching sustainability, to become a partner.
Guichandut said it’s spent the past year working on certification. “It’s a very complex process, a lot of auditing of processes and procedures, salary considerations, selection of suppliers.
It’s also worked on a climate project with the French-based company Ecosol to measure the carbon footprint of its clients. “We found that, based on our 2019 business, it was equivalent to 741 return flights from Phnom Penh to Paris.”
Said Guichandut, “We are the only travel company in Cambodia to provide this tailor made calculation for any of our FITs, groups or incentives. We are now working with the Ministry of Environment to find local projects to compensate for these carbon emissions. We will give the choice to our clients but I see within five years, this will be automatically included in our pricing.
“This will prepare us for the future.”
Below: An example of what else there is to discover about Cambodia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgzdKXWiyaM
