A Day at the Raffles
By Andrew Millar, ACE Samdech Pan Lead Teacher
What do Charlie Chaplin, Angelina Jolie and Pitbull have in common? How about Barack Obama, Charles de Gaulle and Jacqueline Kennedy? Apart from being famous names around the world, renowned actors, singers, and politicians, they have all stayed at the Raffles Hotel Le Royal; Phnom Penh’s most iconic luxury hotel and the venue for the first ACE Diploma in English for Tourism familiarisation trip. Thirty Diploma students were invited on a guided tour of this historic establishment by Princess Sita Norodom, Le Royal’s Sales and Marketing Manager, to visit the elegant rooms and lush gardens that have played host to heads of state and important dignitaries for nearly a century.
When it was built in 1929, Le Royal was not Phnom Penh’s first hotel. Twenty years earlier, the Grand Hotel Manolis opened its doors on Sisowath Quay, catering to French traders and government officials in what was then the heart of the colonial administration’s settlement. In a time before air travel, when the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers provided the main transport links in and out of Phnom Penh, this was a natural location for a hotel. Unlike the Le Royal, however, the Manolis has not survived the many changes that Cambodian society experienced in the twentieth century, from the end of colonialism through royal and republican governments and civil war, and it is now a KFC! In the same period, Le Royal’s fortunes rose and fell and its name was changed three times to reflect the prevailing politics (Hotel Phnom in 1970, Hotel Samak in the 1980s and finally Raffles Le Royal) before serving as a UN headquarters in the early 1990s.
In 1997, Le Royal and the Grand Hotel d’Angkor in Siem Reap became the first hotels outside of Singapore to be purchased by the Raffles group, whose landmark Raffles Hotel in Singapore’s Bay area is one of the world’s most famous. Synonymous with luxury, fine dining and superlative hospitality, the Raffles brand now includes 11 five star establishments across Asia, Europe and the Middle East, catering to the rapid expansion in world tourism.
And so it was that on a sunny, Saturday morning in August, ACE Diploma students had the privilege of getting a behind the scenes tour of Phnom Penh’s very own Raffles hotel. Starting with a highly informative presentation from Talent and Culture Manager, Phana Noun, we were guided around the guest rooms and suites before being introduced to the hotel manager, Jean-Pierre Joncas, and chatting with Marketing Communications Manager, Seylark Samol who organised the tour. While the large pool surrounded by trees and tropical plants was all very nice, the highlight was undoubtedly seeing the Le Royal suite where selfies were taken next to the same bed where Barack Obama slept.
Last year was another record breaking one for inbound tourism to Cambodia, with over five million foreigners visiting the Kingdom of Wonder and spending $3.2 billion dollars. Compare these figures to twenty years ago, when just 250,000 tourists came to Cambodia and spent a mere $111 million dollars, and you start to understand why tourism has become one of the country’s most important sectors and a vital source of foreign currency. To address this rapid growth, ACE is offering the new Diploma in English for Tourism course which, alongside other business related subjects, will help prepare students for the challenges ahead.
So if you want to get one step ahead of the competition and learn more about Cambodia’s fast changing tourism environment, or hope one day of becoming a hospitality industry leader, maybe even a future manager at one of the country’s top luxury hotels, make sure you enrol in the ACE Diploma in English for Tourism today!
