(KPL) Xay District, Oudomxay Province will uphold tourism development as one of the district's main priorities to drive socio-economic development, create jobs and solve poverty in line with the green sustainable development plan of the Party-Government in the future.

 Each year, number of tourists coming to visit Xay District sees to grow, an average of more than 41,000 visitors a year, generating an income of 900,000 USD.

Mr Valy Chunoryeng, Chief of Xay District, Oudomxay Province, gave an interview before the international seminar on Laos Tourism marketing and promotion forum will take place on May 27-30.

Xay District will consider tourism activities as a priority to continue improving and developing new services and tourist resources to support and attract more domestic and foreign tourists to Xay District, he said.

Currently, there are 14 tourist destination in the district, among them, seven natural tourist sites, five cultural sites and two national history sites.

The most outstanding tourist attractions have been developed and opened for tourist services, such as Tad Namkat, Chom Ong Cave, Phou Thad Temple and others. A natural tourist site of Phou Ya Kha (KM 32 Village) has been developing to support domestic and foreign tourists and the district have also signed some memorandum of understanding (MOU) with many businessmen to develop more tourist sites. In particular, the tourism sector within the district compares before and after the Covid-19 epidemic. It can estimate that every year there are more than 41,880 tourists visited Xay District, generating an income of 901,069 USD.  Pre- Covid-19 epidemic in 2019, more than 15,960 tourists came to visit Xay district per year, generating an income of 659,538 USD.

The Laos-China railway is one of the keys to drive socio-economic development, solve poverty, create jobs because it helps more tourists and investors who come to our district thanks to convenient route, high security, the cheap cost of transporting passengers and saving time. Xay has become a district where the Laos-China railway route passes and is a gateway to the northernmost provinces, a gateway to Vietnam, China and Thailand.

In the future, the district will focus on actively developing tourism, such as trying to explore financial sources, mobilize domestic and foreign investors to invest in the development of tourism in Xay District to support tourists to visit and we will improve and develop tourist sites to be more efficient and create new tourist attractions, he went on.

KPL