EuroCham Cambodia
We spoke with Marc Emmanuel, General Manager of Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra, about his return to Cambodia and his vision for one of the country’s most established luxury properties.
We discussed his career across Morocco, France, Switzerland, Jordan and Vietnam, the opportunities and challenges facing Cambodia’s luxury hospitality and tourism sector, and what a long-standing EuroCham Annual Partnership means for the hotel and the wider business community.
Marc shared the story behind his return to Sofitel a decade after first working in Cambodia, the priorities he’s bringing to the property in his early months back, and his vision for the hotel’s next chapter as it approaches its sixteenth year.
Your career has taken you across Morocco, France, Switzerland, Jordan, Vietnam, and now back to Cambodia. Could you start by telling us a little about yourself, your path to becoming General Manager of Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra, and how that international experience shaped the way you lead a property today?
Marc: This is, in many ways, a return to Cambodia for me. I was here exactly ten years ago, transferred for less than a year before returning to Vietnam, where I ended up spending around fifteen years in total. I never expected to come back, but almost ten years to the day, the opportunity arose when Charles-Henri [Chevet, the previous General Manager of Sofitel Phnom Penh Phookeethra] announced he would be stepping down after fourteen years leading this property. I was in Vietnam at the time and heard the rumors about who might succeed him. A few months later, I received a call from Accor’s HR team in Singapore asking if I’d be interested, and it felt like such an auspicious opportunity that it quickly became a reality.
When I arrived, I spent time with Charles-Henri, to whom I want to pay tribute. What he built here, the foundations of this property, reflects a deep understanding of hospitality and the culture of excellence behind it. When I left ten years ago, a little prematurely, to take another opportunity, he was very supportive of that decision. He told me then, “One day we’ll work together again,” and here we are. Stepping into a hotel with this legacy of success is a privilege, and I take it on with humility, drive, and energy.
As for my path here: nothing was planned. It’s always about the opportunities and experiences that push you outside your comfort zone. I left Europe early in my career for Jordan, then Morocco, where I took on regional responsibilities in revenue management. That early specialty was commercial and financial, but it also taught me how to build trust and buy-in, because implementing change is never just about technology or systems. It’s about shifting mindsets.
Those experiences gave me a real passion for debating ideas, conceptualising, and turning concepts into execution. Eventually I realised I wanted to move back toward operations, direct contact with teams and guests, and the work making a property feel alive and forward-thinking. We don’t compete with our neighbors or other brands in the city; we compete with who we were yesterday, always building something new rather than measuring ourselves against a fixed benchmark.
Ultimately, how I lead today comes down to the quality of the relationships we build, with our teams, our owners, and our guests. That depth of relationship is what gets felt in the guest experience.
Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra is one of the most established luxury properties in Cambodia. How would you describe the current state of Cambodia’s hospitality and tourism sector, and where do you see the biggest opportunities or challenges for luxury hospitality here?
Marc: Having been here seven months now and attended seminars with the Cambodia Tourism Board, hotel associations, and the private sector, I’d say there’s a strong will to develop tourism here, though that’s not new; everyone already agrees on that much.
What’s true is that tourism in Cambodia has immense, underexploited potential, still too reliant on Angkor Wat. There’s a lack of infrastructure, and international arrivals are down again this year, putting real financial pressure on some small and medium-sized businesses. But the fundamentals are strong, and Cambodia has the chance to exist within a regional tourism map that’s mature in Thailand and Indonesia, and developing aggressively in Vietnam, while avoiding the mass-tourism trap.
To do that, Cambodia needs to pursue quality tourism: fewer visitors, but higher average spend, longer stays, and repeat visitors. The country doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel, but it does need to find its own narrative and translate that into highly professionalised tourism products, backed by the right communication and promotional campaigns. Global tourism is still a fast-growing industry, driven by population growth and rising disposable income, so the question is how Cambodia captures that by differentiating itself, not just relying on Angkor Wat.
Beyond that, there’s a broader opportunity rooted in culture and people: the growing global need to slow down. Life in major cities today is faster and more stressful than it was twenty years ago, with mental health under pressure and constant connectivity. What people are looking for on a break is to slow down and reconnect, not just with a destination to check off a list, but with themselves, through a deeper, more authentic connection to people, history, culture, and food. That’s something Cambodia can offer that goes beyond the postcard experience.
How do you see your own priorities and role developing over the coming months as you settle back into Cambodia? Is there anything from your experience running properties in Vietnam and Korea’s Shilla Monogram brand that you’re especially keen to bring to Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra?
Marc: I think every experience nurtures the next one, and I’ve learned things from past roles that continue to shape me as a leader. But rather than asking what I want to bring based on where I’ve worked before, I try to look at it the other way around: what does this hotel need, and what does luxury hospitality in Cambodia as a whole need? Our success here isn’t just about outperforming other luxury hotels individually; it’s about collectively establishing luxury hospitality in Cambodia as a highly recognised and reputed segment on the map of luxury travel, which is itself highly segmented between ultra-luxury destinations and more mainstream ones.
What I want to continue building here is precision, in the arrival experience, room preparation, and understanding what guests need before they even ask. We encourage our teams to observe closely, because observation is what allows us to create what we call “Cousu main”, or handwoven, service moments rooted in emotional intelligence: reading a guest’s mood, understanding what they’re looking for, and creating small touches that connect with that.
I want to keep encouraging our teams to invent and create, rather than being restricted by past standards or rigid rules. We have standards, but we can go beyond them. There’s a lot of energy here, and I want to mobilise it into new ideas and continuous progress. I believe what ultimately differentiates a luxury experience and justifies what a guest is willing to pay for it, is the level of precision in execution at every touchpoint.
Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra has long been a EuroCham Annual Partner and has hosted some of the chamber’s most elegant events, including the 15th Anniversary Gala and several Annual Appreciation Receptions. What does this partnership mean to the hotel, and how do you see it adding value, both for the property and for the wider European business community in Cambodia?
Marc: This partnership means a great deal to us because it reflects a genuine, long-term commitment. Trust in business is built over time, and it needs to be backed by tangible action, so the clearest commitment we can make to EuroCham is simply to say: we’re here with you.
For the wider business community to keep growing and tapping into new markets and opportunities, we all need strong connections, solid market knowledge, and external perspective to support the decisions we make and the projects we undertake. That’s exactly what this partnership offers us: access to information, to external expertise, and to a network that helps us stay relevant. Whatever we do at this hotel, we want to be sure it reaches the right audience and stays relevant, and EuroCham, alongside the other chambers and business partners we work with, plays an essential role in that.
Looking ahead, what’s your vision for Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra over the next few years, and what would you like to see for Cambodia’s hospitality sector and business environment more broadly?
Marc: Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra is sixteen years old now, which makes it, in hotel terms, a teenager: still young, but at a point where it’s time to revisit some of our original concepts. Our restaurants and meeting facilities were designed fifteen or sixteen years ago, and while they’ve been well maintained, guest expectations and habits have changed, so those concepts can’t stay fixed.
We’re already underway with this. We recently renovated all our meeting rooms on the second floor, and the relaunch isn’t just about new furniture; it’s about creating spaces deeply connected to nature, where each room tells its own story through light, air, water, and earth, designed to help people focus and get the most out of their time there. It’s meant to be a meeting for success, not just four walls, a table, and a coffee break.
As we move into the next phase, covering our restaurants, our sports club, and eventually our rooms, that same connection to nature, mindfulness, gratitude, and contemplation of our surroundings will become more embedded in everything we do. That will become the primary purpose behind the property. The identity that wraps around it, French elegance with neo-colonial architectural inspiration, will remain, along with what we call hospitality with a French zest: a natural, unscripted twist in our design and our service.
As the hotel continues to elevate and stay competitive and relevant, we don’t want our service to become too formal or too scripted. We want it to be highly professional and knowledgeable, but profoundly human. By training and trusting our teams, we let them deliver service with their own hearts, their own stories, and their own inspiration.
