Once often known as the Pearl of Asia for its beautiful French colonial architecture, after which destroyed by the Khmer Rouge, greater than 40 years later, Cambodia’s capital is undergoing a metamorphosis.
New luxury hotels are shooting into the sky – Rosewood Phnom Penh will occupy the highest 14 floors of the 188-meter Vattanac Capital Tower One within the CBD – while an enormous hotel and gaming expansion can be underway on the NagaWorld casino and resort. Meanwhile, Hyatt Regency, Shangri-La and Okura Prestige are expected to enter the market by 2020.
Where once travelers would head straight to Siem Reap, Jan Musgrave of Travel Managers New South Wales says Phnom Penh is now seen as quite a cosmopolitan city where old and recent mix.
“Cambodia has the true essence of what you think Asia is about,” he says.
“It discusses some of the old-fashioned, romantic ideologies we have when we go to Asia that may have lost the more traditional destinations now, and the country has such a rich history. People are really drawn to countries that still have that sense of identity.”
WHY VISIT
It could be a sin to go to Phnom Penh and never pay your respects on the Killing Fields, where roughly 17,000 people died during Pol Pot’s brutal genocide, and never visit the harrowing Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. For this reason, Phnom Penh has historically been somewhat off the beaten tourist track.
“Ten years ago, no one would have wanted to go to Phnom Penh,” Musgrave says.
“I feel it’s probably due to history of the town and where it’s from, it just wasn’t an attraction.
“Now you can see that people are really becoming more animated. They are really starting to accept their Buddhist culture again and gain the sense of identity they had before these terrible times.”
Last month, Emirates launched a brand new every day service from Dubai to Phnom Penh, creating recent stopover options for Australians returning home from Europe. As river cruises change into more popular, shore excursions bring the town closer to travelers who appreciate its architecture and shopping as much as its history.
“Gone are the days when people said, ‘Let’s just go to Europe and spend 24 hours on a plane,’” Musgrave says.
“Nowadays, all people are looking for that stopover and they have visited Singapore, Bangkok and Dubai, so they are looking for interesting stops.”
