The uniqueness of the Tonle Sap River with its charming floating villages lies in its annual flow reversal, flowing one way for half the year and in the reverse direction for the other half. Travel operators see tremendous potential in promoting the river as a tourist attraction in Cambodia.
Tourists often like to see different communities, and the lake and river communities of the Tonle Sap are unique, said Douglas Woodring, founder and Managing Director of Ocean Recov to Khmer Times. This is mainly because they need to be flexible and change some of their ways of life each season depending on whether the waters are high or low on the lake and its canals and tributaries.