KHOUN Theara Age: 21 Senior, Law, (UC) Senior, International Studies (IFL) Tel: (855) 92 204 409 E-mail:

khoun.theara2010@gmail.com What are the negative and positive impacts of expatriate tourists in Cambodia? With its abundant prestigious cultural and natural heritage sites, past glorious history and modest-yet-admirable daily lifestyle, Cambodia, at least currently, has become one of the most attractive tourism destinations on earth, absorbing millions of foreign tourists to the country annually. With this swift cumulative trend, in my viewpoint, the recent increase of foreign tourists to Cambodia has brought about overwhelming positive impacts comparing to its marginalized drawbacks. To put thing into perspective, more than two million annual incoming tourists with potential growth rate since 1993 contributes a great deal to economic development of the country accounted for more than $1.5 billion in 2009. This in return creates numerous employments for Cambodian citizens both skills and un-skilled workers, attracts many investments on service and tourism related projects and improves a large scale of transportation and telecommunication infrastructure. Also, it raises awareness nationwide about national cultural and environmental conservation in the sense that by preserving these cultural and natural heritage sites, traditional arts and the like, all stakeholders and stockholders in this sector will continue to reap benefits from these foreign tourists. Lastly yet importantly, these expatriate tourists are also the key messengers in bringing and promoting Cambodian cultural prestige on international arena. However, there are some side effects from these tourists as well. First and foremost, if not appropriately controlled, it will unconsciously lead to cultural and identity ruin via foreign inappropriate cultural influences and lifestyles. Another concern is the proliferation of transnational crimes, prostitution, drug trafficking, transmitted fatal diseases and other non-traditional security threats bringing along with these tourists. To me, Cambodian government is on the right track in minimizing these issues and simultaneously, maximizing its potential benefits out of tourism sector.