Tourism and Siem Reap

Since 1993, and particularly since 2000, the number of tourists visiting Siem Reap has risen dramatically.  In 1993 there were around 7,000 international tourist arrivals.  In 2008 the figure had reached 2 million.  People come to visit Angkor Wat and the many other temples and structures that were built from the 9th to the 13th century, at the height of the Khmer Empire.  The vast complex of Angkor, which at its height was home to more than a million people, (when London’s population was about 40,000), was sustained by the Tonle Sap, the largest freshwater lake in South-East Asia.  Water flows out of the lake, down the Tonle Sap River to the Mekong at Phnom Penh, some 200 kilometres away.  The central plain of Cambodia is very flat and level, and as the Mekong rises each year, swollen with the meltwater from the Himalayas, water pours back up the Tonle Sap River, reversing its course, and the area of the Tonle Sap Lake increases fourfold, flooding large areas of forest and surrounding farmland.  Communities on and around the lake have had to adapt to this phenomenon, and visitors are also drawn to the floating villages and villages with houses on tall stilts that surround the lake. 
Despite the prosperity in Siem Reap town, Siem Reap province has the 3rd highest levels of poverty in Cambodia with over 50% of the population existing below the poverty line.  This is defined in Cambodian Government statistics for 2004 as families whose income was less than 43 cents per person per day, and is still much less than $1.00 per person per day in 2009.  The causes of poverty include:

• a shortage of food due to poor soils, inefficient and sometimes unsustainable farming practices, and unmaintained irrigation systems
• low levels of education resulting from a shortage of funding, teachers, and resources
• lack of technical and vocational training
• sparse health care provision, (which is often inaccessible to people due to lack of money or distance)
• lack of infrastructure
• difficulties for people disabled through landmine accidents or other means, to support themselves and their families

The results of poverty mean that many families and communities are unable to look after their children. This has resulted in the proliferation of orphanages, schools and day centres, where many of the children are not in fact orphans, but come from families who simply cannot care for them. With such a large number of such organisations, there is inevitably a great variation in the quality of care they provide and how they are run. 

People are also drawn to the town in search of work, or to beg on the streets, and many children sell books and other souvenirs to supplement the family income.  Many landmine victims also try to earn a living by selling books and souvenirs. 

Nevertheless, tourism is bringing real benefits to the people of Siem Reap, creating jobs and improving the infrastructure.  Responsible Tourism has the capacity to do much more.  Most of the organisations rely of donations of some sort, a large proportion of which comes from visitors as many tourists see sights that make them want to help in some way.  Most people visit Siem Reap for only a few days and it can be difficult to find information on what needs doing, how to help, and how not to make matters worse, (by perpetuating child beggars for example).  At ConCERT.. we can give you the information you need to make informed decisions, and so help you to help.