The president of Singapore-based Raffles Holdings Pte Ltd believes that here as elsewhere, he has got his sums right, although Cambodia has clearly become a labour of love.

In three years, Helfer has visited the country 94 times and despite its continuing turmoil, succeeded in recreating two of Asia's most spectacular and expensive hotels: Le Royal in Phnom Penh and the Grand Hotel D'Angkor at Siem Reap.

"Before we go into a market, we do studies to determine what we feel the pain threshold will be," he told Reuters in an interview. "Coming into the Cambodian market, our feeling was, and I think continues to be, that there is a great upside."

"There is major pent up demand. The visitor potential, particularly when you have one of the wonders of the world to come in andsee, is really quite large."

Both Cambodian hotels owned by Raffles, a unit of Singapore's DBS Land, are seriously upmarket establishments offering exquisite service and old world charm to travellers willing to part with $300 or more for a night's stay.

The Grand provides the most luxurious accommodation available for visitors to the ancient temples of Angkor, a world-class draw on a par with Egypt's Pyramids or India's Taj Mahal.

But the last thing anyone ready to pay $300 a night for lodgings wants to experience is the sort of bloody political unrest seen in Phnom Penh this month or the grenade attack just before the opening of parliament in Siem Reap last week.