Regionalism and Globalization
Professor: KEE Pookong
‘Globalization, Tourism and Cambodia:
The Domino Effects’
by: KONG Puthikar
ID: 51205623
Introduction
People have been traveling from one place to another since the primitive age
when they were living in a small group and did hunting and gathering for their daily life.
The movement of people has become clearer when nation-states emerged. They were
moving within or across borders for various purposes such as travel, trade, migration,
spread of cultural, and dissemination of knowledge and understanding (Amartya Sen);
hence, contributing to the development of human civilization. According to a description
of Chinese missionary visited Cambodia in the 3rd century, people were doing trade with
Indian people since 1st century. At the same time, Cambodian society and people were
also influenced by Indian culture and religion. As for recreation purpose, a lot of wealthy
middle class people in Roman era were visiting Pompeii and Herculanem, seaside resorts,
to escape from hot summer in Rome (William, 1998). Thus, tourism is not the recent
phenomenon.
In this 21st century, tourism is growing very fast and plays an important role in the
world economy. According to Tourism Highlight 2006 Edition, published by World
Tourism Organization, international tourist arrivals and receipts world wide in 2005 was
approximately 8oo millions and $680 billion respectively despite terrorism in US and
Europe, tsunami in some part of Asia, SAR in china and Southeast Asia, and rising of oil
price.
Tourism industry is quite a new industry in Cambodia. Because colonialism, coup
d’etat, Khmer Rouge, Vietnam occupation, and protracted civil war, we don’t know
exactly when tourism has started in Cambodia. However, I believe that it was started
when Cambodian government had shifted from centrally planned economy to free market
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Regionalism and Globalization
Professor: KEE Pookong
economy in 1989 at the same time as Vietnamese government agreed to withdraw its
troops from Cambodia under international pressure. And, the first election in 1993, which
was under the supervision of United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia
(UNTAC), had changed the image of the country from protracted war and unsafe place to
a peaceful nation (UNTAC-Cambodia, 2003). Thus, it helped opening the way to attract
foreign tourists to the country. In 1994, tourism statistic was officially recoded by the
ministry of tourism. There were 176,617 international tourists arrived in the country and
the number has been growing gradually. In 1997, the government launched Open Sky
Policy which enabled direct flights from various countries in the region such as Taiwan,
Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia to Siem Reap
province, which is the most attractive tourist destination in the country, without landing
in Phnom Penh first as they usually did (Travel). This policy had effectively increased the
number of visitor up to almost 290,000 people in 1998 (Ministry of Tourism, Cambodia).
Cambodia accession into the Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) in 1999 was
another turning point for tourism in the country. ASEAN population of approximately
537 million with $1,278 GDP per capita is the promising potential market for tourism in
Cambodia (JAPAN-ASEAN Centre, 2003).
More importantly, the changes in visa
granting system also help facilitating tourists coming in Cambodia. Basically, tourists
were required to apply for visa at the Cambodian Embassies in foreign countries. Later
system allowed visitors to be able to get visa on arrival; either at the airports, border
checkpoints, or ports. However, recently, government had launched e-visa to ease visa
application process. They can get visa to Cambodia from any parts of the world by just
visiting Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. These efforts along with dissemination of
tourism information to the world through media and internet do help generate growth of
this sector.
Recent years, Tourism has been claming to be the second major sector
contributing to Cambodian economy after Industry sector, which is strongly supported by
garment export to mainly US and EU market. Based on statistical report from Ministry of
Tourism of Cambodia, number of foreign visitors in 2006 was approximately 1.4 million,
increased by 18.6% from 2005 (Ministry of Tourism, Cambodia).
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Regionalism and Globalization
Professor: KEE Pookong
According to the above description, the increasing number of tourists in
Cambodia seems to happen simultaneously as the regionalism and globalization process
of the country. Thus, there emerge a question, how globalization contributes to the
development of tourism sector in Cambodia? And, as the country absorbing more and
more tourists, what are the impacts of tourism on Cambodia?
The following parts will explain more about ‘globalization’ and ‘tourism’ as well
as the history of tourism development in the world. Followed by, discussion about the
positive impacts of globalization on tourism. Moreover, the positive and negative impacts
of tourism on Cambodia will be critically analyzed. Conclusion will be drawn at the last
part of this paper.
Literature Review
Before preceding my explanation about the positive effects of globalization on the
tourism sector in Cambodia, it is better to get to know a little bit history of the word
‘tourism’ and, of course, it is even more crucial to understand the definition of two key
words: ‘Globalization’ and ‘Tourism.’
As mentioned earlier, people have started traveling thousands years ago either for
recreation purpose or other purposes such as trade, spread of culture or religion, or
dissemination of knowledge, or even to serve the ambitious aims such as invading or
colonizing other countries. The earlier history shows that Baiae was the popular beach for
rich people during Roman Republic (Wikipedia). Moreover, the industrial revolution,
which first believed to be started from England, and then spread throughout Europe in
18th century (Richard Hooker), had created a large portion of middle class. The rise of
middle class in association with cheap transportation cost established a mass tourism in
England (William F. Theobald, 1998). Though, travel for the purpose of tourism had
started long a go, the definition of ‘tourism’ was first given just about 100 years ago by
Austrian economist (Answer.com), Hermann Von Schullard. In 1910, he defined tourism
as ‘a sum of operators, mainly for an economic nature, which directly related to the entry,
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Regionalism and Globalization
Professor: KEE Pookong
stay and movement of foreigners inside and outside a certain country, city or a region’
(Wikipedia). Though, tourism had been developed rapidly since 18th century and the
definition was first given in 1910, the term ‘tourist’ and ‘tourism’ were first used
officially by the League of Nations in 1937 (Wikipedia). Later, in 1941, Hunziker and
Krapt were trying to give clearer definition to the term tourism. They defined tourism as
‘sum of phenomena and relationships arising from travel and stay of non-residents, in so
far as they do not lead to permanent residence and are not connected with any earning
activity’ (Wikipedia). In 1976, Tourism Society of England defined tourism as ‘a
temporary, short-term movement of people to destination outside the places they
normally live and work and their activities during the stay at each destination. It includes
movement of all purposes’ (Wikipedia).
The evolution of tourism continued and became more advanced after the Second
World War when the commercial airline industry was established and the invention of jet
aircraft in 1950s (William F. Theobald, 1998). In addition to that, the introduction of
information technology in the 90s contributes very significantly to the prosperous of
tourism. Airlines and travel agents can arrange tour more efficiently and accurately by
using certain software. People also can check out the destination and necessary
information as well as make reservation through internet, email, telephone and so on.
Since tourism has been developing very rapidly from time to time and particularly
in the 21st century, it is better to search for more definitions to reflect the current situation
and to understand its present characteristics. The characteristics of tourism in the 18th
century are, of course, different from what it is now in the 21st century. According to
World Tourism Organization (2002), ‘Tourism’ is defined as “the activities of persons
traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one
consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an
activity remunerated from within the place visited.” This definition identifies clearly the
activities and length of stay in the destination outside the usual environment where
people use to be. However, to match the definition of tourism in the context of Cambodia,
which is a small developing country, we should see it from different perspective. Donald
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Regionalism and Globalization
Professor: KEE Pookong
G. Reid’s definition of ‘tourism’ based on economic perspective was very right for
Cambodia. He asserted that ‘for nation-state, especially in the developing world, tourism
is defined by the issues of economic growth and employment, which are of paramount
concern’ (Donald G. Reid, 2003).
To sum up, tourism has been changing progressively according to the
development of technology and the development of industry sector. Thus, its definition
also has been upgrading to reflect the real situation. It is not just as simple as the
movement of people and their length of stay in the destination away from their
environment. In developing country like Cambodia, tourism means more than traveling.
Tourism is the engine of economic growth and employment creation for the people.
Next, we are going to turn our attention to the definition of the term
‘globalization.’
The term ‘Globalization’ has been given various definitions by different
international organizations, scholars and other entities. According to the two giant world
financial institutions, World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF),
‘Globalization’ is mainly focusing on the process of integrating the world economy:
particularly, through international trade and financial flows. While economist scholar,
Amartya Sen, sees globalization as a movement of people through travel, trade,
migration; thus, contributes to the spread of culture and dissemination of knowledge and
understanding throughout entire world. We can see the evidences of globalization in our
today’s world through movement of people within border, between borders, or across
continents, as well as the movement of goods and services between countries; especially,
garment and electronic products. And the movement of capital investments of multinational and trans-national corporations from developed countries to developing
countries.
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Regionalism and Globalization
Professor: KEE Pookong
Analysis
Globalization and tourism seems to be inter-related. On one hand, globalization
can contribute to the growth of tourism sector through free movement of almost anything;
on the other hand, tourism can spread and foster the movement of globalization. However,
the next part of this paper is going to present first the positive impacts of globalization on
tourism. Then, positive and negative impacts of tourism sector on Cambodia economy
and society will be pointed out.
As stated above, globalization has enabled the free movement of knowledge. The
possibility of knowledge transferring, especially information technology, across the globe
contributes to increase the accuracy and effectiveness of various works relating either
directly or indirectly to the sector. Elvira Morella (2006) emphasize that information
technology, including hardware, software, telecommunication systems, is the ‘lifeblood’
of tourism industry. Any kind of information, including tourism, is now at the fingertips
of customers. There are some software such as Central Reservation System or Global
Distribution System (Elvira Morella, 2006), introduced by Airline Company, enables tour
operators to make a reservation job very precisely at a lightning speed.
Tourism is required a lot of supporting organs such as airlines, hotels, restaurants,
travel agents, infrastructure and so on. Thus, thinking of tourism in only on particular
perspective does not sufficient. Donald G. Reid (2003) inserted that ‘conceptualizing
tourism as a system in itself and part of a larger system rather than as an independent
entity accepts the premise that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and that the
relationship between the parts has an equal importance to the parts themselves in the
eventual success of the tourism project.’ Hence, globalization has an important role in
helping to build up those infrastructures and supporting services since Cambodian
government has limited resources. Cambodian government has been receiving grants and
loans from various countries and international organizations to build up its basic
infrastructure such as airports, roads, clean water system and electricity etc. At the same
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Regionalism and Globalization
Professor: KEE Pookong
time, there are a lot of foreign direct investments in tourism service sector such as hotels,
restaurants, and golf courses in particular destinations throughout the country.
Another advantage of globalization on tourism in Cambodia is that it helps
bringing in human resources from all over the world to work in the industry. Skill
workers are inevitably important to provide world-class services to tourists from diverse
culture. High illiteracy rate is one factor, while inexperience is another factor refraining
Cambodian people to fully involve in tourism sector. Thus, expatriates are necessary in
the short run.
Next, I am going to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of tourism.
Brian Archer and Chris Cooper (1998) suggested that tourism would impact on
the country in 4 different aspects: economy, politics, socio-culture, and environment.
Based on those aspects, I will analyze the positive and negative effects of tourism on
Cambodia. So, what are the effects of tourism on Cambodian economy? First, the
movement of tourists, both international and domestic, positively affects the economy.
On one hand, international tourists bring in foreign exchange into the destination country
which then contributing directly to the balance of payment; on the other hand, domestic
tourists play a role in circulating the money within the border (Brian Archer and Chris
Cooper, 1998). Thus, it generates employments, income for the local people. Another
benefit is that the country will be able to accumulate capital investment resulted from the
investment of local and transnational companies on tourism related business such as
airports, highways, hotels, restaurants, and so on. Moreover, more investments in the area
will cause the price of land to rise and people living around will be able to gain from this.
Siem Reap can be a good example to explain all these. Living standard of the people in
Siem Reap is very much better off compared to the last decade or with people in other
provinces as they are employed in tourism business. Amazingly, the price of 1 square
meter of land in Siem Reap is equal to 2 hectares of farmland in neighboring provinces.
However, all these benefits are debatable. More investments mean more competition.
Based on their limited resources and skills, local investors would find it difficult to
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Regionalism and Globalization
Professor: KEE Pookong
challenge with transnational companies. Thus, local investors will be forced to withdraw
from the market and foreign investors might be able control tourism in the region in the
future. Moreover, profits earned by transnational companies and salaries of those
expatriates will be transfer out of the host country. While tourists’ disposable income is
spending in the country, large amount of profits and income will be flowing out of the
country. Another important point is that the development will not be equally shared
among the people. Those who stay inside and around the area will benefit from the
development; but other people are still poor and unemployed or involve in low income
earning job such as doing farming.
Next, tourism may impact on the politics of the country. It is a bit difficult to give
a clear explanation or providing a good example since it is abstract. First, tourism may be
able to help change the image of the country. Since, most tourists visit only safe place.
More tourists to Cambodia mean that it a safe country to visit. In the past, people outside
of Cambodia only know the country by its bad image such as Khmer Rouge, protracted
civil war, land mines, and political instability and so on. However, people’s perspective
has changed as more and more tourists are flooding into Cambodia. As for domestic
tourists, a tour visit to national historical monument or heritage site can create and
enhance a sense of nationalism and patriotism. A visit to killing field museum, can make
people aware of what was happening in the past and think about how to not repeat the
same mistake. A visit to National Museum or ancient temples like Angkor Wat, national
pride and dignity will be embedded in the people’s mind and heart. However, it is agued
that tourism will bring down the sovereignty of the nation when it tries to liberalize the
trade regulations and formulate favorable conditions for business activities to attract
transnational companies. International tourism can impose a form of ‘neo-colonial’ type
of development upon developing nations (Hall, 1994).
The first positive effect of tourism on socio-culture of the destination country is
that tourism can play a catalyst role fostering better understanding among people. In case
of domestic tourists, they will understand more about culture and way of life of people in
different regions within the country as they visit various destinations. On the other hand,
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Regionalism and Globalization
Professor: KEE Pookong
international tourists may be able to narrow down the misunderstanding gap between
customs, religions and culture of their origin countries and Cambodian one. Moreover,
tourism creates cultural diversities in the country through the spread of language, lifestyle,
custom, food and so on. On the contrary, tourism brings various side effects to
Cambodian society and culture. First and widespread problem is the increasing of
brothels, gambling, and drug trafficking to serve illegal aspects of tourism. The most
serious case is that Cambodian children being exploited. Not well educated, poor living
condition, unemployment are the factors to drag not only female children but also male
children to involve in sex industry. There are a lot of pedophile cases in Cambodia as
well. Thus, the spread of HIV will also be critical. The effect of drug on the society,
especially teenagers, is another problem. In Cambodia, drug creates a lot of problems to
the society such as increasing of crime rate, decreasing of social security, increasing
dropouts, and so on.
Last but not least, tourism may impact on environment and ecology. In the
positive way, tourism contributes to the restoring ruin temples, protecting the forest and
wild animal, preserving the nature and so on. Tourists’ expenses on the entrance fee will
be partly used for those purposes. More importantly, that money can be used to educate
local people as well as tourists to take part in environment protection. Also, tourism can
encourage the government to preserve and protect its own nature and environment. Africa
safari, where wild animals are protected in particular area to serve the tourism demand, is
one good example. Contrasting to the earlier mentioned bright side, tourists are also
causing many problems to the environment. The increasing numbers of hotels, restaurants,
tourists as well as migrants to the Siem Reap cause a lot of problems to the area. First and
most serious problem is the daily consumption of water, which is increasing dramatically.
Generally, before the mass tourists coming in, rain and rivers were the main and
sufficient source of water supply. However, those sources alone cannot meet the demand
anymore. Therefore, people start extracting water from under the ground, by digging
wells. According to the archeologists and experts, underground water is the most
important factor to support many temples in Siem Reap, particularly Angkor Wat. They
believe that Angkor Wat was built on the sand and supported by the surrounded water.
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Regionalism and Globalization
Professor: KEE Pookong
They have to keep surrounded ditch filled with water throughout the year; otherwise, the
temple will collapse. Another problem is that, as the population of the region keeps
increasing, a lot of tourists keep coming, more hotels and restaurants are established,
there generates a huge amount of waste. Importantly, since laws and regulations are not
fully and strictly implemented, improper waste disposals pollute the environment and
cause disease for people living in the area (Ker Munthit, 2007).
Conclusion
Tourism and globalization are inter-related and complementarily benefit each
other in many ways. However, tourism is the two-edge sword, which will positively and
negatively impact on Cambodia in various aspects such as economy, politics, socioculture, and environment and ecology. Thus, the government should develop Tourism
Master Plan very carefully to make sure that the negative impacts are minimized. In
addition, the government has to ensure that the development plan is sustainable and every
stakeholder will benefit from the project. More importantly, laws and regulations must be
implemented continuously and strictly so that improper waste management by either
tourism service providers or tourists will be eliminated. Last but not least, the
government should create more destinations within the country to diversify the tourism
products and prolong the length of stay of the tourists. Basically, Cambodia has more
potential tourism destinations apart from historic temples in Siem Reap area such as
beach in the southwest part and natural forest and wild life in the northeast part of the
country. I, therefore, believe that in the future Cambodia will be able to become one of
the most popular destinations in ASEAN. Thus, the country will be able to move away
from a state of developing country to become one the developed country.
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