I personally can't see SHV ever becoming a high-end tourist destination as the beach development has been too concentrated and with short and questionable leases few wanted to risk investing large amounts into building quality accommodation. When I first came Ochheuteal was quite an attractive beach but I would spend every day on Otres Beach as it was a paradise. Now Ochheuteal is a dump lined with an almost unbroken line of less-than-picturesque shacks and Otres Beach has gone from half-a-dozen quaint beach bars to sun-lounger central and pumping music.

The islands could be the new Koh Samui with families booking 2 week holidays but again there will not be the investment made so they will end up being like Koh Samet with locals visiting for a few days on a break from the city or backpackers staying longterm for an alcohol-fueled partytime.

SHV is a cheap and cheerful seaside town for those on a budget and I don't expect it to ever climb out of that with or without an international airport and for me personally I am quite happy about that.

For those from the UK, think Blackpool rather than Bournemouth.

I would be hard pressed to give the Cambodian Resort 2.5 stars, much less 4.5. I used to belong to the gym there and I'm very familiar with the joint. The tiles are falling out of their dirty pool and half of the area smells like sewerage from Pub St next door. Hell, they've still got tube tvs. The Independence is worth 4, if your in the new part. In the main building it ain't so great. I'd give Pagoda Rocks 4, but the location drags it down a bit. good list and pics otherwise, thanks.

indigo_design wrote: SHV is a cheap and cheerful seaside town for those on a budget and I don't expect it to ever climb out of that with or without an international airport and for me personally I am quite happy about that.

For those from the UK, think Blackpool rather than Bournemouth.

Pattay was a bit "rural" back in the '70's - looking back would many people have imagend how it would develop?

Pattaya 1972


Pattaya Beach 1977


Walking street 1979


Not my pics btw although I was there from around 1977

LTO wrote:If they can't even get them to fly in from Siem Reap Angkor in numbers, they certainly won't be able to fill planes to fly them in internationally as a primary destination. They need a reason for people to go there, and dirty, poorly developed beaches don't cut it.

Because they're already IN Siem Reap... there are people who literally fly into Cambodia JUST to go to Sihanoukville. Met more than a few of them actually. They fly into PP then take a $10 bus to SHV... because there was no option to just fly into SHV directly and the cost of flying from PP to SHV (via SR) or even to fly from SR to SHV is retarded. So they plan other routes or go to other places. That's pretty shaky logic that because people wanting to go to the beach won't spend $300 to fly there it means no one will ever fly there from their home country directly for around the same money (one would assume) as flying into PP and taking a 5 hour bus down.

phuketrichard wrote:when i worked for a tourist publication in Cambodia back in 2008 i covered the whole country as advertising/marketing manager

SHV we looked at and except for 4-5 places, decided it was worthless to spend any time there. Yes that was a while ago but what has really changed since then? not much, few more hotels /casinos and that's it

Until there are more rooms as i said, you wont see intentional flights in as there just is not enough demand for high quality tourist there.

no shopping, no tourist attractions (now that the airplane disco is gone)

the 4 hotels/resorts u mentioned? how many rooms? how many farangs vs Khmer are spending time there? how many months of the year?

Too much competition from Thailand , Bali and Vietnam for beach resorts
maybe 10 years

Are you drunk? I didn't mention 4... I mentioned over a dozen. And they're almost exclusively tourists with a VERY few wealthy Khmer. Granted, a number of those tourists are Chinese and Korean... but their of the cashed up variety. Months of the year would October to about March/April... with a massive KNY surge in April of Range Rovered Khmer's down from the capital with their families. So 6 months out of the year isn't bad.


And 2008 was 6 years ago... do you know how much a place can (and according to those who've lived here that long, has) change in 6 years?

phuketrichard wrote:one needs more than a few nice hotels to attract tourists unless you're in a fantastic resort area ( Maldives, Tahiti, Bali)

A dozen is more than a few... and it's attracting tourists, a lot of them honestly. Even in low season it's getting a pretty steady trickle of new faces.

PhnomRon wrote:I think it is incredibly difficult to make any real money in Cambodia in the hospitality/bar/restaurant business, no matter how many tourists the country gets. Khmers will just start up competing businesses run on razor thin margins. You end up with a bunch of places that are barely profitable, because "barely profitable" is quite wealthy to a Khmer.

This is pretty spot on though... the trick is to find something they just suck at replicating.

phuketrichard wrote:one needs more than a few nice hotels to attract tourists unless your in a fantastic resort area ( Maldives, Tahiti, Bali)

which comes first?
the chicken ( the airport) or the egg ( hotels, shopping, attractions) ?

Actually the nice serene beaches came first in Thailand.

And then just the buses to the beaches.

Then the airports and hotels all came together.

It always baffles me that Westerners travel halfway around the world and then say "Where is the McDonalds?"

"I know we need to build one!"

Just to chime in from the sidelines, hotel stars are not awarded on how lush the establishment might be or on consensus - there is an internationally established rating system for assessing hotels that includes number of rooms, availability of room service, 24/7 reception and certain tangible resources. This is why the 'self assessment' system on TripAdvisor and Wotif (for example) becomes a bit of a nonsense for discerning travelers.

StroppyChops wrote:Just to chime in from the sidelines, hotel stars are not awarded on how lush the establishment might be or on consensus - there is an internationally established rating system for assessing hotels that includes number of rooms, availability of room service, 24/7 reception and certain tangible resources. This is why the 'self assessment' system on TripAdvisor and Wotif (for example) becomes a bit of a nonsense for discerning travelers.

....Yeah it's still a crapshoot. A lot of hotel/restaurant managers and owners know how to game the TA system. They pump up their place and dump on their competitors. Same w/Yelp back in the States. Before I give a review any credence, I read the person's other reviews and how many they've written. I still find user reviews useful though.

^ ditto. I also tends to ignore the one bad review among the 200 good ones.