Tourists visit Vat Phou - a ruined Khmer Hindu temple complex in southern Laos. (Photo: VNA) Vientiane (VNA) – Nearly 399,000 Vietnamese tourists came to Laos in the first half of this year, the second biggest number of foreign visitors to Laos during the period, according to the Lao Tourism Development Department.
A recent report by the department shows that Laos welcomed over 1.67 million international arrivals in the first six months of this year. Topping the contingent is Thailand (over 668,000), followed by Vietnam, China (over 317,000), the Republic of Korea (nearly 73,000), and the US (30,455).
Notably, tourists from ASEAN countries accounted for the largest number of the visitors to Laos, with nearly 1.1 million, followed by the over 427,000 visitors from the Asia-Pacific region. Meanwhile, in the first half of this year, Laos attracted only over 100,000 visitors from Europe, and over 41,000 visitors from the Americas.
According to the Lao media, the higher number of foreign visitors can be attributed, in part, to international media coverage from renowned publications such as Australian Travel Publication, National Geographic, CNN, Wanderlust, and Fodor’s, which have highlighted Laos as a must-visit destination in 2023.
With positive results in the first half of this year, Laos expects to attract about 2 million international visitors this year.
The country has set ambitious goals for its tourism industry which are to attract over 4 million visitors and to get a tourism revenue of about 712 million USD in 2024.
To achieve this, the Lao government plans to invest in infrastructure renovations, produce tourism advertising materials, develop QR codes for tourism sites, and create a comprehensive tourism handbook./.
