“O’Malu! O’Malu?” We called out to the residents of a ramshackle hut while zipping by the little countryside paths on our mountain bikes. An old woman peered out of her hammock and feebly pointed further down the hill, guiding us ever closer to the elusive O’Malu waterfalls. All the while we were ticking through our now-ingrained observational checklists: product quality-good, hospitality- great, promotional reach- satisfactory, signage- nonexistent.

Cambodia

Halfway through the second phase of our TDM Master course we found ourselves deep in the Cambodian countryside, the kind of place where a shower is a swim in the river and electricity means hooking up your single neon light to an old car battery. We visited this lost hamlet as part of our month-long research assignment to analyze the markets, products and management practices of Small and Medium Tourism Enterprises (SMTEs) in southern Cambodia, in order to provide strategic recommendations for their future success. After an initial 2 weeks of lectures, site visits, desk research and expert interviews, it was now time to head out into the field and collect the relevant primary research to piece together the puzzle that was our assignment. And so we made our way to Chi Phat– a Community-Based Eco Tourism (CBET) project initiated by the NGO Wildlife Alliance to decrease illegal logging by providing alternative livelihoods for its people. Sadly, a large amount of CBET projects fail after donor funding pulls out due to the lack of synergies with the private sector- so here we looked into the operational challenges faced by SMTEs operating in this environment and how they could better integrate into these projects.

Hands-on research

At the same time our class of 30 students, split into groups of 5, were scouring the rest of Cambodia- from the islands off the coast to the deep internal jungles of Ratanakiri on similar assignments. Prior to this we spent 6 days making our way up the coast, scouting current and upcoming tourism destinations while carrying out interviews with SMTE owners and surveying their customers. We travelled through Kampot, a quiet riverside town and gateway to the mist-shrouded Bokor National Park, Sihanoukville- Cambodia’s next big thing; and Kep- a sleepy seaside town on the cusp of making a tourism comeback after being a popular French retreat in the 1960s, before the Khmer Rouge burnt it to the ground.

The patterns slowly began emerging, and the more observations we did and people we talked to, the better an idea we got of Cambodia’s fledgling tourism context and its challenges. And so a few days ago we returned to our base in Phnom Penh- Cambodia’s bustling capital- with a heavy load of dirty laundry and filled out surveys to begin the compilation and synthesis of our research. With our second destination almost behind us we are looking forward to begin the final assignment for this Phase- spending our last month researching public tourism organizations in the sunny island of Bali. Yes, it’s a tough life, but someone has to do it.