• Editorials

A Sidetrack for the “Beer Bus” Intended for Tourists

• By Cambodianess
• February 25, 2024 10:00 AM

Should the “beer bus” – a mobile bar that was offering tourists to explore the city while drinking beer in an open-top bus—have been prohibited or not?

Beyond the strictly regulatory considerations brought up by the Phnom Penh police authorities to justify this decision, this has triggered a heated debate on social media, with many contributors taking the side of the “beer bus” owners, saluting this new tourism offering that could help dynamize the tourism sector.

The first time I came across this bus with its garish colors and in which tourists were doing a lot of elbow bending in the middle of a traffic jam, I was dumbstruck.

Having tourists clink glasses in the evening on bar streets such as those of the Sisowath Quay area and on Bassac Lane in Phnom Penh or Pub Street in Siem Reap city, this of course is part of the tourist experience in Cambodia.

But this “beer bus” seemed to me like a rather vulgar type of attraction, the more so being in broad daylight.

Since tourists have their back to the street, facing each other, one remains perplexed as to the cultural enrichment provided by such an excursion. The more so that heat and the bustle of traffic must be somehow inebriating, especially when alcohol is added to the mix.

However, everyone is free to find contentment the way they wish, you may say.

Of course, as some people pointed out on social media, tourism being a vital industry for the country, innovative and original initiatives must be encouraged, especially to step ahead of the intense competition from the neighboring countries.

But this “beer bus” seems to be an example of what should not be done.

If the legal issues brought up by the authorities were resolved at some point, one could suggest to the owners of this bar on wheels to replace beer by original drinks from the country, making the excursion one that would be lacking neither in flavor nor in cultural enrichment.