ICT, TOURISM AND POVERTY REDUCTION : A CASE STUDY IN THE SIEM REAP-ANGKOR REGION, CAMBODIA

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are widely used in tourism and tourists tend to take for granted that they can use the Internet for most of their travel arrangements, even when travelling to countries in the developing world. But not all tourism operators have the resources, whether financial or skills, to benefit from the use of ICT, and there is a risk that this could exclude them from itineraries. While it has the potential to contribute to pro-poor tourism, ICT can thus also have the opposite effect, unless concerted action is taken to include small poor operators into some form of Internet presence. This is the conclusion drawn from an exploratory study conducted among small tourism operators in the Siem Reap region of Cambodia. The paper concludes with a proposal of an Internet platform promoting pro-poor tourism in the area and suggests that the Cambodian government has an important role to play in facilitating use of the Internet by this segment of the tourism sector.