Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Bosengkham Vongdara
at the ongoing 4th Ordinary Session of the National Assembly’s
8th legislature in Vientiane on Tuesday

(KPL) The government has an ambitious plan to have more than 5.2 million foreigners visiting the country and increase the annual income generated by the foreign visitors to US$900 million next year.

“In order to make a rebound in tourism growth, the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism plans to launch Visit Laos Year 2018,” Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr Bosengkham Vongdara told the ongoing 4^th Ordinary Session of the National Assembly’s 8^th legislature on Oct 24.

The government has prepared a number of activities to promote the launch of “Visit Laos Year 2018” in an effort to attract more foreign travellers.

The Visit Laos Year 2018 campaign is scheduled to kickoff on Oct 28 in coincidence with the coming celebration of That Luang Festival 2017.

“Since the government prioritizes the tourism sector as a key economic driver of the country, the tourism sector has been developed and many tourism sites, natural, cultural and historical, have been improved and basic infrastructure including airports, roads linking many provinces with neighbouring countries have been developed,” said Mr Bosengkham.

In 2011, more than 2.7 million foreigners visited Laos. In 2015, the number of foreign visitors in the country was increased by 14 percent as compared to the figure reported in 2011.

In 2016, a 10 percent year-on-year decrease in the number of foreign visit arrivals was reported and in the first quarter of 2017, the number of foreign visitors was decreased by 9.8 percent as compared to the same period last year.

KPL