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Country Update Mapping of Tourism Sector in Lao PDR: Key Figures, Structure, and the Current National Regulations

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Country Update Mapping of Tourism Sector in Lao PDR: Key Figures, Structure, and the Current National Regulations OCTOBER 2018 ● MSMEs CONNECTION LAO PDR Country Update Mapping of Tourism Sector in Lao PDR: Key Figures, Structure, and the Current National Regulations Provided by THE LAO HANDICRAFT ASSOCIATION (LHA) www.laohandicraftassociation.com and streams flow through from North to South. Data & Statistics The beauties of rivers are added by rapid, waterfall especially Khone fall islands, which Key Figures and Structure of the considered as “Jewel of Mekong”. Lao PDR is Tourism Service Sector also located in the hub of Mekong sub-region, which serves as a link and transit point to five Lao PDR owns national, culture and historical neighboring countries. tourism sites in its own characteristics. The geographical location composed of plateau, At present, there are a total of 26 international plain, and mountainous areas. The climate is checkpoints. Tourists are able get visa on tropical, warm, cool and seasonally cold with arrival along the 13 checkpoints. There are now green forest cover of 41% of the total areas. three international airports in Vientiane Capital, This includes 20 national protected and Luang Prabang and Pakse. Visa exemption has biodiversity conservation areas, provincial and been granted for fifteen countries. Following the district protected areas, Limestone Mountains, order No.15/PM dated 20/06/2006, to replace splendid stalagmite and stalactite spreading 30-day arrival visa to 15-day arrival visa. throughout many different provincial and local areas. In additions, Lao PDR is a country with However, most of international checkpoints do rich water resources. There are many rivers not have proper management and it is unclear whether those international checkpoints are 1 under which organizations. The collection of Source: The 8th Five-Year National Socio-Economic service fee is not the same, and very often they Development Plan (2016-2020) mostly do not follow the Prime Minister’s order In 2014, there were a total of 1,916 tourist No.12/PM, dated on 27/11/2002 on collection of attractions, of which, 1,093 are natural fee throughout the country. This is often leading attraction sites, 541 are cultural attraction sites to corruption. and 282 are historical attraction sites. The total The Lao Government has tried to develop attraction sites, 145 have already been infrastructure to serve tourism which was surveyed, of which 24 have already future assisted by many financial institutions and development concept. There are 2 world donor countries in the forms of grants and soft heritages and 20 national heritage sites. There loan such as the construction of roads; the are 368 travel agencies, 54 affiliated construction of Mekong bridges; improvement companies, 542 hotels with 21,597 rooms, and construction of access roads to tourism 1,907 guesthouses with 26,791 rooms, 1,744 sites, airports, electricity system, water supply, restaurants and 168 entertainment centers in telephone, etc. In additions, aviation links to 2015. tourist towns of each country have been Table 2: Number of Tourist Arrivals to Laos developed. by Category, 2016-2017 The year 2015 is another remarkable year for BORDER PASS BORDER PASS PASSPORT TOTAL DAY STAY tourism in Laos as number of tourists arrival’ CATEGORY TRIPPE OVERNIG R HT increase was higher than in 13% in 2014 In 2017 2016 2017 2016 2017 2016 2017 Grand 611,992 496,228 1,184,1 1,108,2 3,054,8 2,760,6 4,239,0 3,868,8 general, while the total number of tourist Total 51 20 96 18 47 38 arrivals increased, the market share of tourists Internatio 681,29 525,09 681,29 525,09 nal Tourist 4 9 4 9 from long haul generating countries slightly Regional 611,992 496,228 1,184,1 1,108,2 2,373,6 2,235,5 3,557,7 3,343,7 decreased: Europe 4,64% (5,03% in 2014), the Tourist 51 20 02 19 53 39 Thailand 506,114 337,409 949,53 843,52 1,060,0 954,28 2,009,6 1,797,8 6 3 69 0 05 03 America 1,90% (2,07% in 2014) and Africa and Vietnam 20,895 31,343 69,441 52,238 928,95 839,40 998,40 891,64 9 5 0 3 Middle East 0,23% (0,21% in 2014).Visitors China 84,053 126,080 162,87 210,13 370,34 429,05 533,21 639,18 4 3 2 2 6 5 from neighboring countries (ASEAN) Cambodia 930 1,396 2,300 2,326 14,232 12,782 16,532 15,108 represented the largest number of tourists in Source: Tourism Development Department, Ministry of 2015 (3,588,533) or about 77% of the total Information, Culture and Tourism tourist arrivals, an increase of 11% over 2014. In the same way, international tourists, Table 3: Revenue from Tourism by considered the most important market for Lao Category, 2017 tourism, grew from 568,844 in 2014 to 643,062 AVERAGE NUMBER OF AVERAGE EXPENDITURE REVENUE FROM TOURIST CATEGORY LENGTH OF PER PERSON TOURISM IN 2017 in 2015 or about 13% of increase. It is important ARRIVALS STAY (DAYS) PER DAY (DOLLARS) (PERSON) (DOLLARS) to notice that the market share for European Total 3,868,838 5.2 52.11 648,067,008 and markets decreased from 5,03% to 4,64% International 525,099 8.39 76.6 337,467,475 and from 2,07% to 1,90% respectively. Tourist Regional Tourist 3,343,739 310,599,533 Table 1: Number of Tourist Arrivals and Thai (Passport) 954,280 3 52 148,867,680 Revenue from Tourism Thai (Border pass) 843,523 1 20 16,870,460 Vietnam (Passport) 839,405 3 30 75,546450 DESCRIPTION UNIT 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 (EST.) Vietnam (Day 52,238 1 12 626,856 Number of Perso 2,723,564 3,330,072 3,779,490 4,158,719 4,684,429 Tripper) tourist n China (Passport) 429,052 3 50 64,357,800 China (Day Tripper) 210,133 1 15 3,151,995 arrivals times Cambodia (Passport) 12,782 3 30 1,150,380 Applied % 7 7.2 8.4 7.9 13 Cambodia (Border 2,326 1 12 27,912 inflation pass) rate Revenue US$ 406,184,3 506,022,5 595,909,1 641,636,5 725,365,6 38 86 27 43 81 Source: Tourism Development Department, Ministry of 2 Information, Culture and Tourism 1.7%, and the country is expected to attract 3,367,000 international tourist arrivals. Provide Information about the (types of Stakeholders involved in The strategy and promotion efforts of all Lao the value chain of Tourism Sector tourism stakeholders in Laos, as well as focused skill trainings contributed to a 13% (to 2.7 Million.) increase of arrivals, a 16% (to 595 In 1989, the National Tourism Company had Million USD) increase of revenues and a 17% been established as a unique travel company (to 8.4 days)2. during the time. In 1996, a joint-venture state- private company had been established. In the Provide Information/data about the later years, many state-private, and joint venture companies have been continually share of the Tourism Sector in your established. In 2006, there were total 85 units national exports of local tourism providers. Tourism businesses are preferably reserved for Lao nationals, but Tourism is one of the eight priority programs of the VIII Congress Resolution of the fifth the socio-economic development of the Lao National Assembly Members has adopted the government. Therefore, the Ministry of Tourism laws, which permits foreign countries Information, Culture and Tourism has set up the to invest in tourism sectors. Public National Tourism Strategy for the period 2015- management towards tourism is more efficient 2925, which is in line with the government and progressive. All issue related to the policy3. establishment of business operation shall be addressed at early stages including the Table 4: Revenue form Tourism Compared collection of fee and taxes to national budget to Major Exports 2013-201. Note : (Revenue in Millions of US Dollars ) and to Tourism Promotion Fund. The increased number of tourists has encouraged Lao society 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 PRODUCT REVEN RAN REVEN RAN REVEN RAN REVEN RAN REVEN RAN to actively invest in tourism business. For UE K UE K UE K UE K UE K Tourism 648.0 4 724.1 4 725.3 3 641.6 2 595.9 2 instance, there are more improvement of Garments 182.23 6 88.8 6 199.3 6 219.5 6 232.7 5 Electricit 1,280. 3 940.7 3 495.5 4 596.1 3 592.3 3 hotels, guesthouses, and resorts; the extension y 3 Wood 48.6 8 39.0 7 144.6 7 159.9 7 83.5 7 of restaurants and entertainment places; Products development of tourism sites; souvenir Coffee 105.1 7 59.9 8 54.7 8 48.4 8 79.7 8 Agricultu 582.5 5 584.2 5 319.8 5 238.2 4 290.1 4 production; food production; transport, etc. In ral Products 2005, there were a total of 165 hotels with 5,974 Minerals 1,390. 1 1,314. 1 1,292. 1 1,325. 1 1,982. 1 rooms, 923 guesthouses and resorts with 9,854 5 0 4 2 0 Handicraf 3.20 9 0.97 9 2.1 9 5.3 9 0.94 9 rooms1. ts Other 1,295. 2 1,312. 2 917.2 2 237.6 5 133.0 6 Industries 0 1 Visitor exports are a key component of the direct contribution of Travel & Tourism. In 2017, Source: Ministry of Industry and Commerce Laos generated LAK6,233.5bn in visitor exports.
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