Post-conflict Heritage and Tourism in Cambodia: The Burden of Angkor

The World Heritage Site of Angkor is enduring one of the most crucial, turbulent periods in its 1200-year history. Since the early 1990s over 20 countries have contributed millions of dollars to help safeguard and restore its temples. As one of Southeast Asia's premier destinations, Angkor has also seen a 10,000% growth in international tourist arrivals in just over a decade. The challenges arising from the intense convergence of these two paradoxical and unstable agendas-heritage conservation and tourism development-are greatly compounded by Cambodia's need to recover from war and turmoil. This paper explores the critical trends that have surfaced at Angkor and why the challenges posed by surging tourism have been inadequately addressed. It argues Angkor's dominant role within Cambodia's post-conflict heritage and tourism industries requires closer, more critical attention given recent events in the country. This article is the summary of Winter's book Post-conflict Heritage, Post-colonial Tourism (Routledge 2007).