The push to look beyond the temples is showing up in the products travellers can actually book. Around Siem Reap, community-based tourism is expanding: homestays in rural villages, boat trips through the flooded forest and floating communities of the Tonle Sap, countryside cycling through rice fields, silk-weaving demonstrations and hands-on Khmer cooking classes.

These experiences do more than fill an afternoon. They spread visitor spending into the countryside, support artisans and farming families directly, and give travellers the human connection that surveys consistently rank above monuments alone.

They also lengthen stays. A traveller who might once have spent two days on the temple circuit can now build a four- or five-day itinerary that moves between heritage, nature and village life — exactly the outcome the province’s diversification strategy is aiming for.

For Online Guide Association members, community tourism is a natural fit. Local guides are the bridge between visitors and villages, and the ones who can host these experiences authentically stand to benefit most as demand shifts toward immersion.