Cambodia & EuroCham: Alexis de Suremain, "Repositioning Cambodian Tourism Beyond Angkor"

For this week’s interview, Junior Communications Officer Henry Henderson sat down with Alexis de Suremain, founder of the hospitality brand MAADS. Their discussion began with the origins of his hotel journey in Cambodia and the lingering impacts of the COVID pandemic on Cambodia’s tourism sector.

The pair then turned to Alexis‘ passion for innovation and sustainability, the need to broaden Cambodia’s brand beyond Angkor Wat, and the way these concepts can be synthesised to transform the Kingdom’s position into a premier destination for international tourists.

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Henry: Your hospitality projects have ranged from fashion and lifestyle spaces to boutique hotels, city properties, island resorts, and jungle lodges. How did this evolution happen, and how did Phnom Penh’s early tourism landscape shape the concepts you developed? 

Alexis: My first business here was in fashion. My wife was selling clothing and we opened an outlet on street Pasteur called “Elsewhere” selling clothes that were made with natural fabrics. It was in an old colonial house and we had a cafe and a restaurant there, with a small swimming pool, and we started doing events. 

And after that we had the opportunity of renting the Pavilion, which we weren’t really looking for, but when we visited the place, we immediately thought it would make a nice little guest house. There were just two rooms, but we convinced the owner to add rooms and bathrooms and a swimming pool and that’s how it started. 

Read the full interview here