Siem Reap’s businesses search for revenue taking them out of town

An artisan receiving vocational training from Garden of Desire handicrafts designs. Companies in once-tourism heavy Siem Reap are looking beyond Angkor for revenue as visitor numbers have not rebounded from the 2020 slump. Supplied

Cambodia’s most popular tourist destination is at the forefront of the devastation befalling the pillar industry and the loss in revenue is forcing local businesses to seek opportunities elsewhere.

Siem Reap has seen a severe decline in international visitors with the Angkor Archaeological Park attracting just $18.65 million in ticket sales in 2020, down 91 percent over 2019.

“It has been an extremely challenging period for us from the start of 2020 until now,” artisanal jewelry firm Garden of Desire founder Ly Pisith said.

“In my 13 years in business, this has been the lowest point of my career. My business saw a steep 90 percent drop in sales and it has not recovered since incoming tourists stopped,” he said.

“We used to have a retail shop in Phnom Penh for many years and a good customer base, but the location was temporarily closed last March due to lease issues in light of the pandemic. We need to wait for a suitable time to reopen,” he added.

To adapt to the pandemic, Garden of Desire has heightened its delivery service to Phnom Penh, with its general manager saying that deliveries to the capital had increased two-fold since April last year.

Pisith added that Garden of Desire was working “towards creating more opportunities beyond Cambodia”, a move that other business operators are keenly adopting, including Manava Cambodia founder Ka-lai Chan.

Manava, a cooperative that includes 24 women from rural villages surrounding Siem Reap, produces wicker goods and provides vocational training to female entrepreneurs, while providing them a stake in the profits.

“In mid-2020, we experienced a hard time for about two months. Our full-time workers became part-time and, sadly, we couldn’t provide support for our part-time artisans,” Chan said.

“We focused more on our social media and marketing and that boosted our sales locally and internationally. Wholesalers found us and became customers… resulting in us being able to get all of our staff back on board – and some additional part-timers even joined our team,” she added.

Despite her firm’s success abroad, Chan acknowledged that she was among the lucky few to have found success through exports. She stressed that it was important for companies to cater to the domestic market to make up the loss in revenue from tourists visiting Siem Reap.

Similarly, Samin Pheakdey, owner of fashion company Seung Khmer, said her company had experienced a stark 70 percent drop in business since the outbreak. Some 90 percent of Seung Khmer’s clientele were foreigners before the pandemic, according to Pheakdey, but the numbers have flipped, with the domestic market making up about 70 percent of her business thanks to the firm’s ability to pivot to domestic tastes. “Visitors prefer something more casual, while locals like to wear our designs to more formal events such as weddings or parties, so we changed our designs to reflect domestic tastes,” she said, adding that sales in Phnom Penh have increased by about 50 percent during the pandemic.

Kambio Nature, which specialises in natural beauty and self-care products, has also felt the pinch since the pandemic. The firm relied on sales to hotels and spas previously, and the loss in visitors is reflected in their bottom line.

Its chief executive officer, Margot Vincent, said business dropped as much as 80 percent during the firm’s worst period in May. Kambio Natio is not only looking to foster relationships with retail chains to distribute their products in Phnom Penh but has also brought a specialist on board so that the firm can reach new markets in Australia and Singapore among others.

“Siem Reap is definitely in trouble right now and, for many people, it is over,” said Anne Laure Bartenay, partner at Beyond Retail Business, and organiser of the ‘Made in Siem Reap Fair’ [over the weekend]. There is a lot of potential in Phnom Penh, so I’ve encouraged a lot of businesses to move to that market. The vendors could see with their eyes that there is a lot of potential in Phnom Penh,” she said, noting that some sellers said they made more sales over the two-day fair than they had during the past six months. Khmer Times