GETTING IT WRONG - Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism - page 74

Thong said he has earned his luxurious lifestyle after surviving twenty years of unimagin-
able deprivations through war, revolution and more war and occupation.
“We rebuilt with nothing, nothing,” he said. “I learned by doing.”
In his government's vision, questions about social justice and equality take a backseat
to development and catching up in the material world. Because Cambodia has risen from
the ashes, with an overall economic growth rate of 10 percent each year, Hun Sen and his
cabinet believe they are the only ones capable of leading the country.
Thong spoke with me over lunch; none of my questions fazed him. He said problems
of corruption, bribes, sex tourism or sinking temples had either been solved or were exag-
gerated.
“We will change—we want to change from mass tourism to quality tourism in the fu-
ture,” he said, qualifying his statement. “I don't say that we want fewer people to come,
but our tourism has to be better managed . . . We're trying to enhance.”
The question of the sinking temples and related water shortage and sewage pollution
were being resolved, he said, thanks in large part to the work of the United Nations and
in particular the governments of Japan, Korea and France. “The deterioration is over. Yes,
before there were problems, but now it is recognized that this area is well managed.”
He disposed of the question about the explosion of sex tourism with equal ease. “The
government policy will not encourage sex tourism—we fight it, absolutely fight child traf-
ficking and child prostitution.”
He hesitated for a moment. “Tourism provides positive impacts and negative impacts,”
he said. “The positive is providing jobs and revenue. The negative is drugs, prostitution
and sometimes crimes, but not much.”
He was proud, he said, that Cambodia had passed laws to stop this “negativity.” And he
was crafting a new tourism master plan that would tackle all the hot-button issues: sustain-
ability, climate control, ecotourism, biodiversity, protecting wildlife, even “contributions
to the poor.”
I told the minister that my research told a different story. Tourism was often spreading
inequality, injustice and misery in the country. The laws may look good on the topics, but
they are enforced haphazardly to favor the rich and powerful. The poor are evicted from
their land, which is then sold to the highest bidder regardless of property rights or regard-
less of the poor effect on protected wilderness or the environment.
Thong shook his head. Evictions, he said, made land available for new development
that was necessary to lure tourists. Half of the foreign tourists visit Siem Reap, but only
3 percent make it to the southern beaches. The government had to broaden the base of
tourism so those peasants had to lose their land, homes and livelihoods.
“We have to diversify to the beaches, to our coastal zone,” he said. “Our new strategy is
to make [the south] our new destination.”