Cambodian Islands Turn to Chinese Development

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CEOCambodiaNews
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Cambodian Islands Turn to Chinese Development

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

As the numbers of western visitors decrease, is Chinese development better than no development at all for Cambodia's islands ?

July 13, 2020
More Chinese development on Sihanoukville’s islands
More small scale Chinese businesses are opening up on the islands off the coast of Sihanoukville as Western businesses continue to close with owners blaming high rents and falling Western tourists for the changing demographic.

The reports come after the Royal Group, one of the largest investment companies in Cambodia, announced in 2019 a $285 million investment project had been agreed for the island of Koh Rong.

The investment project is a joint venture between Royal Group and Chinese-owned Royal Galaxy Group to build a resort that consists of five-star hotels, convention centres, duty-free shops, supermarkets and 600 villas.

Jake Scott, the business owner of Bongs Guesthouse M’Pai Bay in Koh Rong Samloem said: “Most of us [current business owners] arrived at Koh Rong in the early 2010s to establish our businesses. Backpackers always want to find the next big thing and it was probably around 2018 that people started looking for other beaches to stay on. With that, Koh Tui on Koh Rong had run its course for the Westerners. The Chinese have moved into the shells that were left behind and are hopefully going to revive the local economy.”

Now with the majority of Western-owned businesses gone from Koh Touch village and few left fighting to stay open, it’s left space for Chinese businesses to move in. The village now has two Chinese Restaurants and a Chinese KTV with more set to open. General Manager of local businesses Coco Boutique Resort and Buffalo Restaurant said: “I am happy that the Chinese are coming in and trying to do something with the village, even with high rents. It’s not the same place it was three years ago. When I arrived here on this island we had a mix of 17 bars and restaurants in Koh Touch village, now we only have seven. We would rather have Chinese places open and have people here than the place be empty.”
Full article: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50744114/m ... s-islands/
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Sir Stephen
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Re: Cambodian Islands Turn to Chinese Development

Post by Sir Stephen »

More development..
Spoiler:
encroachment
:dm:
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jaynewcastle
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Re: Cambodian Islands Turn to Chinese Development

Post by jaynewcastle »

" Backpackers always want to find the next big thing and it was probably around 2018 that people started looking for other beaches to stay on "

The reason that many people, including myself stopped coming to the islands & even Cambodia after late 2017/ 2018 is probably because of the Chinese. Its not a coincidence that western tourists numbers plummeted in Snooky/islands just as the Chinese were busy taking over everything.

Every hotel I stayed at in Snooky over 5 years has gone, as has virtually every bar & every restaurant I used
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Re: Cambodian Islands Turn to Chinese Development

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jaynewcastle wrote: Tue Jul 14, 2020 12:07 am " Backpackers always want to find the next big thing and it was probably around 2018 that people started looking for other beaches to stay on "

The reason that many people, including myself stopped coming to the islands & even Cambodia after late 2017/ 2018 is probably because of the Chinese. Its not a coincidence that western tourists numbers plummeted in Snooky/islands just as the Chinese were busy taking over everything.

Every hotel I stayed at in Snooky over 5 years has gone, as has virtually every bar & every restaurant I used

I shudder to think what they're now doing to Koh Rong
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Re: Cambodian Islands Turn to Chinese Development

Post by Queef »

jaynewcastle wrote: Tue Jul 14, 2020 12:07 am " Backpackers always want to find the next big thing and it was probably around 2018 that people started looking for other beaches to stay on "

The reason that many people, including myself stopped coming to the islands & even Cambodia after late 2017/ 2018 is probably because of the Chinese. Its not a coincidence that western tourists numbers plummeted in Snooky/islands just as the Chinese were busy taking over everything.

Every hotel I stayed at in Snooky over 5 years has gone, as has virtually every bar & every restaurant I used
From the conversations I've had with people that visited Cambodia over the past 5 years, the same negative points always come up:
- the filth.
- the chinese.
- the never ending scams.
- nothing to see/do besides kampot/ siem reap/ pp.
- Thailand has better islands.
- Vietnam has better mountains/ jungle.
- cheap flights from Bangkok to Hanoi/ HCM (pre covid). No need to go through Cambodia.

Backpackers may have the reputation of being broke but most of them aren't. They're just cheap entitled fucks. The new generation of backpackers needs something that's Instagram worthy. They will gladly drop $200 on an attractiom for 10k likes on IG. Cambodia is slowly but surely losing anything IG worthy. Angkor isn't cutting it and the islands, well, aren't anything special. The Chinese invasion is just the last nail in the coffin.
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John Bingham
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Re: Cambodian Islands Turn to Chinese Development

Post by John Bingham »

We would rather have Chinese places open and have people here than the place be empty.
Good luck with that. I bet all they'll do is flatten the area, put a big fence around it, and leave it like that for 5-10 years. :?
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Re: Cambodian Islands Turn to Chinese Development

Post by crob »

jaynewcastle wrote: Tue Jul 14, 2020 12:07 am The reason that many people, including myself stopped coming to the islands & even Cambodia after late 2017/ 2018 is probably because of the Chinese. Its not a coincidence that western tourists numbers plummeted in Snooky/islands just as the Chinese were busy taking over everything.
feel like I got to check out Koh Rong just as it was going to shit, when I stayed there in 2017 it was lovely, quiet, no scams and relatively clean... Snooki was a shithole, but the Chinese still hadn't attacked the island yet. sucks to here they are invading, guessing it was inevitable, at least there's plenty of cheap island in SE-Asia... for now
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Re: Cambodian Islands Turn to Chinese Development

Post by rogerrabbit »

John Bingham wrote: Tue Jul 14, 2020 6:28 pm
We would rather have Chinese places open and have people here than the place be empty.
Good luck with that. I bet all they'll do is flatten the area, put a big fence around it, and leave it like that for 5-10 years. :?
Right, and where has that happened? :facepalm:

Today the works on 70km long and 8 meter wide concrete road was started at Koh Rong. Roads should be completed by end of next year.
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Re: Cambodian Islands Turn to Chinese Development

Post by jaynewcastle »

Koh Rong & KRS are very nice islands with some stunning beaches, up there with the likes of Phi Phi, Ko Lipe (Thailand), but 20-30 years behind in development & commercialisation

I remembered just being absolutely blown away after hiking over to & spending an afternoon on the stunning empty Soksan beach on Koh Rong, and that was just a few weeks after I'd been to Borocay (which everybody raves about but is completely jam-packed & completely over-developed )

I also remember being devastated when I hiked over to Soksan beach the next year, and saw the destruction that had been taken place, which was the start of the luxury resort development, Royal Sands .
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