Journal of Tourism & Hospitality
Open Access

Abstract

Understanding the Visitor Experience: A Focus on Angkor Temples of Cambodia

Claudia G. Green*, Earleen Gonzales, Dylan Sawyer, Erica Beige Smith, Andresious Cypriano and Massiel Ubillus Rivera

Due to the global increase in tourism, many destinations are receiving higher than expected visitors with a concomitant deterioration in the quality of visitors’ experience. This is particularly true at many World Heritage Sites around the world including Barcelona, Venice, Macchu Picchu and Angkor Wat. The purpose of this study is to assess the needs of visitors to assure a more quality experience at the largest archeological UNESCO site, Angkor Temples of Cambodia..

With this in mind, our collaborative team of Pace University Faculty and Students and the members of the Authority for the Protection of the Site and Management of the Region of Angkor (APSARA) interviewed over 300 visitors in the City of Siem Reap and in the temples of Angkor. The results of the study show that a large majority of the visitors would recommend a visit to the temples of Angkor with their primary motivation be the temples and the culture. Most of the visitors purchase a pass of three days or fewer and are not taking full advantage of the food, art, wellness and other attractions that Siem Reap has to offer. The most popular temples are Angkor Wat and Ta Prom. Most visitors in this study are independent travelers and are not using tour guides. The major limitation with this study was the inability to easily access the largest demographic group of visitors which includes those from ASEAN due to oral and written language barriers. A major contribution of this research is recommendations on how to plan for gathering feedback from the Asian market in future studies of this type. Visitors would be interested in seeing more specific information on the temples, signage, marketing, accessibility, and improved safe infrastructure for visitors who are those physically challenged.

Published Date: 2020-08-20; Received Date: 2020-07-27