Feels like home - Cambodja.nu 12 02 Planologisch onderzoek.pdf · Feels like home Introduction I...

Feels like home

Locating a Phnom Tong Daeng Hotel in Phnom Penh

Fieldwork report Cambodja.nu

With special thanks to François van der Meide

Feels like home. Locating a new hotel in Phnom Penh. 2

Table of contents

Introduction 3

Research question and method 4

Spatial analysis

Historical development 5

Transport and traffic 6

Tourist attractions 7

Tourist accomodations 8

Real estate market 9

Advice 10

Summary 11

Used literature and sources 12

Fieldwork report Cambodja.nu Photo frontpage: Johan Douma (Flickr.com / Creative Commons)

3 Locating a Phnom Tong Daeng Hotel in Phnom Penh.

Feels like home

Introduction

I have done research in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Cambodja.nu, a Dutch-based NGO, wants to start a new

hotel in the city. It’s part to develop a business plan.

This report deals with the spatial part of this plan: the

location where this hotel could be started. This research is made by a student Urban Planning and

Design of the Univerity of Rotterdam, Francois van der

Meide. He’s done spatial research. To do this in a

foreign country with a unknown culture was sometimes

difficult and provocative but of-ten very interesting and

innovatory. In Phnom Penh he’s talked with different people, mainly

in the sector of architecture and real estate-business.

This results of this research are shown in this report, is a

usefull guidance for searching and finding a good place

to locate the hotel. A place where both foreign tourists

and local employees are ‘feeling like home’.

Feels like home. Locating Phnom Tong Daeng Hotel in Phnom Penh. 4

Research question and method Problem definition It is not clear where the guesthouse, which Cambodia.nu

wants to develop in Phnom Penh, should be realized

exactly. Research question What is the best location within Phnom Penh for devel-

oping a guesthouse for middle-class, foreign tourists? Research plan To answer the research question above I have to found

out some smaller scaled topics and divide the research

into subquestions. The plan below is not unchangeable

since fieldwork will always differ from the theoretical as-

sumption before. Tourist movement flows and requirements - What are relevant (spatial) requirements from the tar-

get group? - Where are other guesthouses, hostels and hotels lo-

cated? - Where are the main tourist attractions in Phnom Penh

located? - How is public transport organized and where are the

main transport junctions? Urban planning and development - Which urban developments have there been in the

past and can be expected in the next years? - How are property rights organised and which

problems can occur in buying land/a building for

developing a guesthouse? - Which prices can expected for buying land/building

for possible location for the guesthouse? Where can the

af-fordable options be found? - What is the role of the quick development of foreign in-

vestors in Phnom Penh and what effects could that have on the guesthouse, it’s visitors and its employees.

The urban expansion of Phnom Penh between 1922 en 1994.

(Source: Aruna Technology)

5 Feels like home. Locating Phnom Tong Daeng Hotel in Phnom Penh.

Historical development

Sightline from Norodom Boulevard oriented at The red arrows reflect the sightlines orientated at monuments or

the Indepence Monument. (Source: theworldeffect.com) central buildings. Clear to see is the grid pattern of smaller streets.

Phnom Penh, the actual capital of the kingdom of Cam-

bodia counts an estimated amount of 2 million inhabit-

ants and is still growing everyday.

Nevertheless it was not until 1866 that Phnom Penh be-

came the seat of the national government. The French

colonialists and developed it into a modern city with a

huge amount of public buildings in French colonial ar-

chitectural style. Although many buildings have been de-

molished in the past, a few examples still exists.

French architects improved the cities urban planning, in-

spired by the map of Paris: wide boulevards, sightlines

oriëntated on important buildings or squares and a strik-

ing pattern of a grid-inspired network of smaller streets,

all about 20 meters wide.

In 1975 the city became in the hands of the Khmer Rouge,

who transported the towns inhabitants into the country-

side telling them that the Americans would bomb the

city within three days. According their views on Khmer

culture and their agressive attitude towards Western in-

fluences people had to work on state farms. When the

Khmer Rouge was overthrown in 1979, the city counted

about 50.000 people, against circa 2 million in 1975 (City

Flooded streets in Phnom Penh caused by heavy Newly build skycrapers in Phnom Penhs banking area. The 188-metre of Water, 2012).

rainfall in South East Asia in 2009. tall Vattanac Capital tower (left) is currently under construction. It took 20 years before all survivors of the war got back

(Source: Flickr.com / Richard Reitman) (Source: Flickr.com / K. Panha) into the city, looking for new places to live since many

houses were destroyed or occupied by other refugees.

Since the country opened up towards the world outside

its national borders, there has been a explosive growth

of jobs in the city. Especially the garment manufacturing

industry, engineering and tourism are sectors where mi-

grated rural workers come to work in.

Phnom Penh’s existing infrastructure which is aged, can’t

often keep up with this rapid population growth. Results

are not only busy streets and traffic jams but the drain-

age system is beyond capacity too. Therefore, much of

the city routinely floods during the rainy season (Paling,

2012).


Transport and traffic

Phnom Penh lacks a network of public transport fa-

cilities. All the transport of both people as goods,

takes place by the use of private owned busses,

cars, motorbikes, tuktuks or cyclo’s. In 2001 the city authority tried to implement a for-

mal bus service, helped by a Japanese NGO who

brought in retired busses from Osaka’s municipal

fleet. The project lasted a couple of weeks but was

stopped because there were not enough passen-

gers who used the busses (BBC, 2012). On September 2012 the City Hall announced to have

selected two companies for delivering a busi-ness

plan for public transport in Phnom Penh, which

possibly could start with a first busline half 2013

(Phnom Penh Post, 2012). Since there is no public transport, both local pas-

sengers as foreign tourists make use of car- or mo-

tortaxi’s and tuktuks. In 2011 there were 1.271.00 foreign tourists who

entered Phnom Penh by plane, bus or boat. There

were 645.000 foreign tourists who passed immigra-

tion officials at Phnom Penh International Airport, 626.000 entered the

capital by bus or, for a

small part, by boat (Min-

istry of Tourism, 2012). The Siem Reap province

is a slightly more popu-

lar area, but many for-

eign tourists combine a

visit to the Angkor Tem-

ples (near Siem Reap)

with Phnom Penh.


Tourist attractions

The main tourist attractions can be found in the Eastern

part of Phnom Penh. These include the Royal Palace and

its garden with the Silver Pagoda, the Wat Phnom Tem-

ple and the Central Market. Along the river Tonlé Sap, the Monivong Boulevard is

one of the spare public spaces which are (re)designed

for pedestrians and recreation and therefore an

important spot for tourists. Two tourist attractions which are further away from the

city’s centre. These are both related with Cambodia’s

Khmer Rouge history: Prison S-21 and the Killing Fields.


Tourist accomodations

Not surprisingly almost all tourist accomodations (hotels,

boutique hotels, guesthouses or hostels) can be found in

the city’s centre between the Royal Palace in the South,

Wat Phnom in the North and the riverbank in the East. Together with growth in tourist-visits the amount of

tourist accomodations has grown rapidly the last years. There can be said that there are three different accomo-

dation types, which is reflected in the price per person

per night. The more expensive hotels, where prices start from $50,

can be found near the riverbank and have rooms with

view on the Tonlé Sap and Mekong rivers. Smaller and less expensive hotels range from $20-$50

and are located throughout the city, but most of them

can be found just behind Monivong Boulevard. Within

this price-range there are several ‘boutique-hotels’,

small scaled (below 30 rooms) hotels and often located

in (for-mer) villa’s with a small garden around. The last group of accomodations are cheap hotels and

guesthouses. These often cost less than $20 per night and

serve less luxury. They are often used by backpacker-

tourists and are relatively small with less than 20 rooms. In and around this tourist area there are lots of restau-

rants and bars, focussing on foreign tourists. Menu’s of-

ten show a western orientated kitchen.

Locations of tourist accomodations in Phnom Penh (dark blue) according Booking.com. The light blue signs are public build-

ings or important orientation points.


Real estate market

The rapid growth of Cambodia’s economy has had its

im-pact on the real estate market of Phnom Penh. Prices

of both land and real estate grew rapidly, exacerbated

by investors who made fortunes with price speculation.

Economic growth and an increase of foreign

investments in property development have produced

several conflicts over land rights. This is enforced by a

weak land law and land titling legislation. For many Cambodians claims to the ownership of land

are made through a traditional understanding of owner-

ship based on occupation and the actual land use

(Paling, 2012). However, without land titles people - especially those who

don’t have the money or connections - are vulnara-ble for

forced evictions. The case of the Boeung Kak Lake, just

north of the train station, got international attention in the

press. This lake was leased to a private company, owned by

ruling party senator Lao Meng Khin, for a 99-year term.

Since 2008 the lake is being filled up with sand and

residents were forced to move (Paling, 2012). Apart from this case, private relations and corruption

are widespread within all government layers.

Foreign companies cannot buy Cambodian land, al-though

lease-contracts for the longterm - up to 99 years - are used

instead. Therefore, foreigners can only rent land or

buildings. Since the real estate market isn’t stable at all, this

is by far the most attractive way for investment.


Advice

It is often said that the three most important factors

that determine the succes of property are location,

location, location. And in especially here this is the case. As seen in the previous chapters the neighbourhood of

Daun Penh is the one with the most expensive property

and it is the area where most tourist accomodations can

be found. Nontheless, Daun Penh still is the most interesting place

to develop a new guesthouse. Location is not only the

most important factor of property, especially for tourists

it is the most important thing the look for. The accomodation should be in the neighbourhood of

the main tourist attractions and there have to be

enough places to eat, drink or party. Definitely Daun Penh is therefore the best area: close to

the most important tourist attractions, a safe area and

enough places to get food and drinks. Although rentingprices are more expensive than in other

parts of the city, guests will probably pay a few dollars

more for an accomodation on an attractive location. Therefore, the area of Daun Penh is advised as the first

place to find property which can be transformed into a

guesthouse. The map at the right shows the red area, which are the

most interesting streets for tourists to stay. Orange and

yellow are less interesting but will be good spots too. It is preferable to avoid buildings which face directly to

the Monivong Boulevard (the river bank) or one of the

main streets. These places will probably be a lot more

expensive compared with buildings in one of their side-

streets.

Daun Penh


Summary

Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital city with an estimated

amount of 2 million inhabitants, is growing fast due to

urbanisation and the growing attraction in commercial

and tourist-industry. In 2011 more than 2,8 million foreign tourists visited the

country and that number is increasing with a yearly aver-

age between 10% and 15% (Ministry of Tourism, 2011). Most of the tourist-attractions are located in the neigh-

bourhood of Daun Penh, especially near the riverside.

These include the Royal Palace, National Museum, Wat

Phnom and the Central Market. Khmer Rouge related

attractions such as Prison S21 and the Killing Fields are

relatively far away from the city centre. Not surprisingly it is the Daun Penh-area where the big-

gest part of the guesthouses, hotels and restaurants are

located. Due to the existence of nearby attractions and

the boulevard along the Tonle Sap and Mekong-river.

In first sight, the existence of many other hotels and

guesthouses nearby would make the start of a new

guesthouse difficult. But since the biggest part of the

tourists are searching and booking beforehand using

the internet, this isn´t a problem at all. Location is,

together with price, the most important factors in

choosing acco-modation beforehand. Since there is no public transport system in Phnom Penh,

people use moto-taxis or tuktuks. These are widely avail-

able in the streets. Although there are no public trans-port

hubs, it is advisable to choose a location which is not too

far from the different bus stations around the Central

Market, since most tourists combine their Phnom Penh visit

with Siem Reap (Angkor Wat). The northern part of Daun

Penh is therefore an acceptable area. As an extra service it could be possible to arrange pick-up

service by tuktuk or car from airport or bus station. This will

make it a lot easier for visitors to find the guesthouse. Not surprisingly, the popular area near the riverside is

one of the most expensive areas for buying or renting

space in Phnom Penh. Nonetheless, location is one of

the most important factors for choosing a place to sleep

and therefore it is advisable to search for affordable

priced buildings to rent. Renting makes the hotel more flexible in the relatively

unstable Cambodian market (economically and to a

lesser extent politically) and reduces entrepeneur-risks. Probably the financing bank will not even allow buying a

building before a stable income of profit is guaranteed. Concluding market-research and conversations with

sev-eral real-estate brookers in the city, it should be

possible to rent a building or villa (+/- 20 rooms) in and

around Daun Penh for a monthly price between $2.500

and $3.500 (price indication December 2012 and can be

sub-ject of change in nearby future). Since most real estatebrokers do not calculate costs to-

wards tenants and have essential knowledge and experi-

ence it can be helpful to make use of a local broker.

Feels like home. Locating Phnom Tong Daeng Hotel in Phnom Penh.. 12

Sources and literature BBC (2012, January 8). Will Phnom Penh ever get a bus

system? news/world-asia-16343191 Bonna Realty Group (2012). Khmer Property

Magazine, Volume 56, Issue November 2012. Booking.com. Hotels in Phnom Penh. Retrieved at 1 December, 2012 at http://www.booking.com/city/kh/

phnom-penh.nl.html?aid=303947;label=phnom-penh-0zw6KWEwt-

2TxwlQ1sKbGTwS20355272239:pl:ta:p1150:p2:ac:ap1t1:neg;ws=&gclid =CLeTiML46bQCFbMbtAodNg8Apg City of Water. Architecture, Infrastructure and the Floods

of Phnom Penh (2012, January 17). Phnom Penh Popula- tion vs Conflicts. Retrieved at November 28, 2012 at http://cityofwater.wordpress.

com/2012/01/17/phnom-penh-population-vs-conflicts/ Doyle, Shelby. Interview with architect and lecturer at

Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, Phnom

Penh. Interviewed at 15 November 2012 in Brown’s, Phnom Penh. Duch Vannak. Interview. Floor operations manager at

King Grand Suites, Boutique Hotels. Interviewd at De- cember 6, 2012 at King Grand Suite II, Phnom Penh. Market Metrix (2010). What is more important than location in selecting a hotel? Retrieved at 19 December, 2012 at http://www.marketmetrix.com/en/

default.aspx?s=research&p=MoreImportantThanLocation Ministry of Tourism, Kingdom of Cambodia (2012).

Tourism Statistics Report 2011. Statistics and Tourism Information Department, Phnom Penh.

Paling, W. (2012). Planning a future for Phnom Penh: Mega projects, aid depence and disjointed governance. Published in Urban Studies Journal and retrieved at Sep-

tember 7, 2012 at http://usj.sagepub.com/content/ear- ly/2012/08/02/0042098012452457 Phnom Penh Post (2012, October 1). Bus routes on their way to Phnom Penh. Retrieved at 14 December 2012 at www. phnompenhpost.com/2012100159015/National/bus-routes-on-their-way-to-phnom-penh.html Thlang Si Kheng. Interview. Marketing manager at Cam-

bodia Estate Agent. Interviewed at 5 December, 2012 at CEA office, Phnom Penh.

Retrieved at November 8, 2012 at http://www.bbc.co.uk/

Fieldwork report Cambodja.nu January 2013

With special thanks to François

van der Meide

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