On Location: Who really benefits when we travel? Dispatch from GX Cambodia

The first clue that this wasn’t going to be an ordinary trip through Cambodia came before breakfast.

It was still dark in Siem Reap – around 4 a.m. – when a fleet of roaring tuk-tuks pulled up outside Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor, ready to whisk us away to nearby Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world and national symbol of Cambodia, for a sunrise visit.

At the wheel weren’t the men who dominate Cambodia’s transport industry, but women.

The “Tuk Tuk Lady Drivers” had arrived, a voice in the crowd announced. It’s an association and local business founded by Kim Sokleang – better known as the “Tuk-Tuk Lady” – that creates employment opportunities for women in Siem Reap’s tourism transport sector.

Sokleang knows what it means to start from scratch.

A single mother of two, she turned to driving because she needed an income that would allow her to send her children to school.

“I am the first lady driver in Cambodia,” she told us later on, once the sun came up.

Getting customers wasn’t easy at first. Neither was learning English. But Sokleang persisted, eventually building an organization that today includes more than 20 lady (and lady boy) drivers. And counting.

But there we were, climbing into those tuk-tuks before dawn, bound for Cambodia’s most famous monument.

READ MORE: G Adventures wraps GX Cambodia with Brazil reveal, temple party & product updates

It was a simple ride that brought lots of smiles. But it captured the idea behind GX, G Adventures and Planeterra’s global community tourism summit.

Perhaps better than any conference presentation could.

Tourism creates demand. Demand creates work. And when local communities have the opportunity to participate meaningfully in the tourism economy, a traveller’s holiday can become someone else’s livelihood.

That message followed PAX across Cambodia as GX 2026 took over the “The Kingdom of Wonder.”

GX returns for year four

As previously reported, made-in-Canada G Adventures kicked off its fourth annual GX on Sept. 23 with an outdoor Temple Fair at Wat Phnom, an historic Buddhist temple that rises above the streets of buzzing Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, involving some of Planeterra's local members. 

Each year, the event brings together journalists, influencers, travel advisors, travel executives, G Adventures and Planeterra staff, VIPs and travellers across nine different tracks led by G Adventures’ Chief Experience Officers – its local guides, also known as “CEOs.”

READ MORE: On Location: "There's so much energy": Cambodia is the star as G Adventures’ GX 2026 begins

The idea is to spend five nights in a destination, seeing firsthand the power of community tourism – a travel style that puts local people and places first, directing tourism dollars to families, small businesses, Indigenous communities and women, while creating meaningful experiences for travellers themselves.

This year’s GX built on previous events event held in Peru, India and Jordan.

Cambodia, however, gives the community tourism conversation a particularly complex backdrop.

The country was once the centre of the mighty Khmer Empire, which flourished for centuries and created monuments that still rank among humanity’s greatest architectural achievements.

Its more recent history, however, contains extraordinary trauma.

The Khmer Rouge regime, which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million to two million people through execution, starvation, forced labour and disease.

Scars remain, but so does Cambodia’s resilience, and tourism is increasingly being used as one tool to create opportunities for communities moving forward.

That’s where Planeterra comes in. Founded in 2003 by G Adventures founder Bruce Poon Tip, the non-profit works to turn tourism into a force for good by connecting travellers with community-led enterprises and helping keep more traveller spending in the places they visit.

GX, in many ways, is a powerful vehicle for that mission. Rather than keeping grassroots organizations on the sidelines of the industry, the event puts them directly in front of leading travel and tourism pros who can spread the good word and generate demand.

Over several days in Cambodia, we saw what that looks like on the ground.

Where silk tells a story

Our first stop was Silk Island, reached by ferry along the Mekong River from Phnom Penh.

The boat ride itself felt like a miniature river cruise, with Cambodia’s capital slowly giving way to a quieter landscape.

At the Silk Island Community Centre, wooden looms clicked and clacked as artisans demonstrated one of Cambodia’s oldest traditions.

Around 30 women are supported on site with housing and weaving equipment, while another 300 weave from their homes in surrounding villages, allowing them to earn income while remaining close to their families.

For visitors, the experience includes seeing how silk is transformed, meeting the artisans and purchasing textiles directly from the women who make them.

But Kelly Galaski, vice-president, operations and head of impact at Planeterra, joining us on the tour, said travellers are witnessing something larger.

“You won't just be seeing a craft. You're going to be seeing a tradition that's carried on over generations,” Galaski told PAX and some 20 other journalists. “It's a type of craft that people learn by watching and doing.”

Without younger generations learning those skills, she noted, traditions can disappear.

“There’s so many of these kinds of traditions around the world that we help to celebrate through tourism,” she said.

Silk Island is particularly interesting because its relationship with Planeterra is brand new.

Planeterra recently supported infrastructure upgrades, including a new restaurant and toilets, as the community prepares to welcome G travellers in 2027.

Galaski said Planeterra looks for the point where a viable tourism experience intersects with meaningful social or environmental impact, with women’s empowerment, cultural heritage, Indigenous communities and youth among its focus areas.

And success isn’t measured simply by how many travellers show up.

Planeterra surveys its community partners annually using indicators tied to socioeconomic and cultural impacts, income generation and how tourism revenue is reinvested – whether in infrastructure, training, new businesses or community development.

The bigger question, Galaski said, is what happens over time: how tourism enables an organization to grow according to the goals the community itself has defined.

Understanding Cambodia’s darker chapter

Community tourism can help explain where a destination is going. And understanding Cambodia requires confronting where it has been.

After Silk Island, we visited Phnom Penh’s Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a former high school transformed by the Khmer Rouge into Security Prison 21, or S-21.

I wouldn’t call Tuol Sleng a simple sightseeing stop. The atmosphere is heavy. Former classrooms became cells and interrogation rooms. Barbed wire is seen everywhere.

Then there are the faces. Thousands of black-and-white photographs show men, women and children documented by the Khmer Rouge after arriving at S-21.

Seeing it was sobering and harrowing, but essential context for understanding the Cambodia we were experiencing outside those walls.

From there came a dramatic shift in tone at Cambodia’s Royal Palace, the official royal residence in Phnom Penh.

Behind its gates are manicured gardens, ornate pavilions, the Silver Pagoda and the Throne Hall, whose soaring central spire rises 59 metres and is topped by a four-faced Brahma head.

The contrasts would continue.

Global pressures impact tourism

We travelled by bus – with a police escort, no less.

The Cambodian government, which welcomed GX with just eight months’ notice, was pulling out all the stops to ensure the summit ran smoothly.

GX comes at a crucial time for Cambodia’s tourism sector. International arrivals fell 44.4 per cent to 2.25 million during the first eight months of 2026, compared with 4.05 million over the same period last year, according to the country’s Ministry of Tourism.

The data points to a combination of global economic pressures, rising fuel costs and challenges closer to home.

Our Chief Experience Officer (CEO), Chan Roeurt Han, who hails from Cambodia’s Battambang Province, offered his own perspective on some of the factors that may be keeping international travellers away.

Conflict in the Middle East, he said, has created uncertainty around air travel, particularly for itineraries connecting through the Gulf.

“People worry about the flight through Dubai. A lot of trips were cancelled,” he said.

Closer to home, tensions along the Cambodia-Thailand border may also be contributing to traveller hesitation, he said.

Chanroeurt pointed to another, less obvious factor: this year’s FIFA World Cup, which he believes influenced how some travellers chose to spend their discretionary income.

“I think people saved their money to watch the football, so maybe next year will be better,” he said.

Whatever the reasons for the slowdown, Chan was unequivocal about the importance of visitors to Cambodia.

Asked what role tourism plays in the country, his answer was simple: “A big one.”

“It’s our second-largest industry,” he said, adding that tourism and hospitality also create opportunities beyond direct employment, motivating Cambodians to pursue higher education and learn multiple languages.

“We do better when destinations need us”

The potential community tourism has on transforming Cambodia, from uplifting marginalized communities through local enterprise to alleviating poverty, isn’t lost on Bruce Poon Tip. 

Speaking on stage during a live edition of Dan Christian’s Travel Trends podcast at the GX World Community Tourism Summit in Siem Reap on Sunday (Sept. 27), G's founder, referencing the success of GX in Jordan last year, said: “We do better when destinations need us.”

When GX comes to a destination, it gives the team a chance to build facilities and community projects. “We get to show our capacity building,” Poon Tip said.

Cambodia wasn’t actually supposed to host GX this year. Morocco was the original plan, but didn’t pan out in the end, so Cambodia was next in line.

“The government and officials that met us, and the tourism industry, were so open and willing to host,” he said. “Cambodia is everything that we think tourism should be, but it's so underdeveloped and undiscovered. We can have an impact.”

G Adventures, overall, continues to post double-digit growth, but Poon Tip acknowledged the geopolitical pressures facing the travel industry today – and the ripple effects they can have on the community tourism model.

“It’s a tough time because of what’s going on with the Iran war and fuel prices. All tour operators are [offering] discounts to fill capacity. The danger of that is that people become extremely sale and discount-driven, and the pressure gets pushed down to communities,” he told PAX. “It’s the local people who suffer as companies report record profits.”

It’s a kind of industry “disruption” that has existed for years, he explained.

“It’s tough when it happens,” he said. “Everyone likes a good sale, but we have to weather that storm. We don’t have the solution, but we’re learning as we go. We look at what’s good for the communities around us and make decisions.”

“I see a bright future for Cambodia," he added. "Right now, it’s a stop-over destination for Thailand and Vietnam, but it’s definitely a destination people want to see.”  

A temple in the forest

The richness of Cambodia’s communities came into clearer focus as we travelled from Phnom Penh onto Siem Reap.

We stopped at Sambor Prei Kuk, where ancient brick temples emerge from thick forest.

Once known as Isanapura, the site was the capital of the Chenla Kingdom in the early seventh century and predates Angkor by hundreds of years.

Its Khmer name translates to “the temple in the richness of the forest,” and it doesn’t take long to see why.

More than 100 brick and sandstone shrines are scattered throughout the archaeological landscape, including rare octagonal temples.

Giant roots wrap around centuries-old structures. Moss creeps across brick. Dirt trails disappear beneath trees.

There is a stillness that feels worlds away from the crowds associated with Angkor Wat.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site is also tied directly to the surrounding community.

At nearby “Homestay Number Five,” our group sat down for a traditional Khmer lunch at the Sambor Prei Kuk Community, where roughly 2,000 families live across seven villages and about half the community benefits from tourism.

Stir-fried noodles and vegetables, morning glory and chicken covered the table, followed by local desserts including kra lan – sticky rice with coconut milk, sugar and salt – and num tnaot, made with rice flour, palm fruit pulp and coconut milk.

Women, there, participate in weaving, while tourism creates income through guiding, restaurants, homestays, cycling tours, handicrafts and local transportation.

Visitors can stay in simple village homes on stilts, eat meals prepared by host families and experience everyday life beyond the archaeological site.

Mr. Tem Buntang, deputy leader and vice-president of Sambor Prei Kuk Community Based Tourism, spoke passionately about what visitors mean to the villages.

“We want to see more tourists visit,” he told our group.

By evening, GX had reached Siem Reap and the Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor, where female drummers and musicians playing traditional instruments welcomed attendees.

Luxury, yes. But by this point, GX had made it difficult to experience tourism solely through the eyes of the traveller. 

The communities behind those experiences – and how they benefit from them – had become an equally important part of the picture.

Sunrise – with an insider’s story

The alarm clocks rang brutally early Saturday morning. Our departure time? 4:15 a.m. The payoff, though, was seeing Angkor Wat at sunrise.

As the Tuk Tuk Lady drivers, wearing G Adventures-purple t-shirts, delivered us through the darkness, we joined the silhouettes gathering along the edge of Angkor Wat’s reflection ponds.

Slowly, the morning sky brightened behind five lotus bud-shaped towers. Their reflection sharpened in the water.

Built in the early 12th century under King Suryavarman II, Angkor Wat spans roughly 402 acres and is considered the world’s largest religious monument.

Originally constructed as a Hindu temple dedicated to the Vishnu, it gradually became a Buddhist complex and remains an active place of Theravada Buddhist worship.

Our group walked its grounds, climbed viewpoints and studied elaborate wall carvings. A Buddhist monk offered blessings, which several GX attendees stopped to receive.

For many travellers, Angkor Wat is Cambodia’s defining moment, but our visit came with someone unique: Bradley Gordon.

The lawyer and cultural restitution expert has spent years working with a team to recover Cambodian antiquities and artifacts looted from archaeological sites and dispersed into private collections and museums around the world.

Think Indiana Jones, except Gordon’s tools include research, negotiation with former looters, international law enforcement and the media to raise awareness.

Gordon said his team includes 10 Cambodians, mostly in their 20s and 30s, who conduct extensive investigative work.

One breakthrough once came through a former looter, code name “Lion,” who once led a network of roughly 300 people.

Before his death, Gordon said, Lion shared his knowledge of what had been removed and where it had gone, helping investigators trace objects.

The motivations of former looters who cooperate today can be deeply personal.

“They're not motivated by money. It's about karma,” Gordon told PAX.

Former looters have even joined archaeologists at sites, showing teams where objects were removed. Excavations have subsequently uncovered pieces left behind – feet, arms and other fragments – providing evidence that helps establish provenance.

Gordon’s team then works with museums, collectors and authorities internationally to negotiate returns.

His work adds another dimension to the idea of community tourism: tourism can preserve living traditions. It can create livelihoods. But cultural heritage also belongs to the communities whose histories created it.

Beginning in January 2027, travellers on G Adventures’ National Geographic Signature Cambodia itinerary will have access to a similar insider experience with Gordon, connecting Angkor not just to its ancient past, but to the ongoing effort to bring Cambodia’s heritage home.

Training with real customers

After Angkor Wat, a local enterprise, called “Spoons,” showed how tourism can shape Cambodia’s future.

This wasn’t a simulated training environment. Rather, it is a functioning Siem Reap restaurant, with paying customers.

That distinction matters. The facility trains 75 youth from marginalized backgrounds each year through a 12-month program focused on hospitality and life skills.

Students then get something equally important: somewhere to practice.

When they greet customers, take orders, answer questions and serve meals, they are developing the skills and confidence needed to build careers.

Planeterra, meanwhile, helps connect Spoons to the tourism economy, while G Adventures groups provide a steady stream of real-world customers.        

Life on the water

Our final stop took GX onto Tonlé Sap Lake.

At Kampong Phlouk, some 16 kilometres southeast of Siem Reap, homes on stilts stand high above the ground on enormous stilts – architecture shaped by the dramatic seasonal rise and fall of the water.

Some 1,100 families live here across three fishing villages.

We boarded a community boat and moved slowly through a remarkable waterscape.

Children and parents gleefully waved from homes and boats as we passed. Cambodia’s renowned warmth and hospitality came through at every turn. A monk’s chanting crackled through a speaker in the distance. There is a monastery, a school and floating restaurants.

Despite living on the water, electricity is part of everyday life – residents once relied on recharged car batteries for power. And tourism, now, is woven into the village economy.

A fleet of ferry-style boats operate through a community association, while women in smaller rowboats take travellers, by request, into the surrounding flooded forest.

Chan, our CEO, explained that tourism, here, wasn’t always organized equitably. In the past, whoever had a boat could simply compete for customers.

A community system, later on, introduced greater structure and a way to share the benefits.

Money from tourism now reaches not only boat drivers, but also community initiatives, he said.

A portion of each traveller’s ticket also contributes to the area, supporting needs including a new roads, schools and electricity.

That difference is crucial as community tourism isn’t simply about placing a tourism experience inside a village.

It’s about asking who owns the experience, who works in it, where the money goes and whether the community itself benefits after the traveller leaves.

What is community tourism, really?

That question followed us everywhere in Cambodia. 

And another question lingered: what is community tourism, really?

The answer traced back to the GX World Community Tourism Summit, where Poon Tip put it simply:

“For us, community tourism is about shared responsibility,” he told the audience.

That responsibility can take many forms, from wealth distribution and poverty alleviation to cultural preservation.

But its power, Poon Tip explained, lies in what happens when people travel together.

Travellers may arrive from different corners of the world, but from day one, they form a community of their own – one with a shared responsibility for how they experience a place and what they carry home with them.

“Whether it's understanding your place in the universe, [having] a better appreciation of where you [visited], or just being better citizens, that ripple effect of community is our goal,” he said.

GX, and G Adventures, is also about showing people how to participate in culture “and not just see it as a form of entertainment when they travel,” Poon Tip later told us.

And for the travel advisors who participated in GX this year, Poon Tip had a clear message: tell clients not only what community tourism looks like, but also how it makes you “feel.”

“The privilege of being here comes with a great responsibility to translate that back,” he said.

Cambodia may call itself the Kingdom of Wonder.

But after spending time at GX (which heads to Brazil next year), the bigger wonder was seeing just how far tourism dollars can travel when the people who call a destination home are given a meaningful place in the journey.

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