Visit Laos Year works

From Threeland Travel's Blog - July 2012

At the halfway point of the Visit Laos Year 2012, international arrivals grew by 16.91%, (January to June) tallying 1,736,655 visits, the Tourism Development Department announced earlier this week.

The government targets 3.4 million tourist arrivals this year and hopes to earn US$452 million in tourism related revenue.

ASEAN remains the largest source of arrivals at 1,597,092 (+17.98%), but the numbers are mostly coming from neighbors Thailand and Vietnam.

Thailand is the top supplier accounting for 59.14% of all visits. It posted a strong growth of 18.68% supplying 1,026,979 tourists. The accumulated growth expanded from 11.04% at the end of the first quarter.

The tourism boom between the two countries, especially overland travel, has been attributed to better road networks and bridge links. There are three bridges across Mekong River and the fourth Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge in Chiang Rai province is projected to open in 2013.

The Thai Cabinet recently approved the fifth Friendship project at a cost of Bt2 billion. It will connect Thailand’s Bung Kan province and Laos’ Bolikhamxai province and will take three years to build.

Vietnam, the second top source market supplied 355,212 tourists growing slightly at 8.13%. Contributions from other ASEAN countries were around 10,000 visits or lower.

Arrivals from other Asian countries and the Pacific reached 182,789 (+33.5%). China leads the list with 107,032 arrivals, growing at 40.33%. It shares a border with Laos and overland travel is expanding mainly to Luang Prabang, via the northwest town of Luang Namtha.

Other significant sources include Korea, Japan and Australia supplying around 20,000 visits each.

Europe facing an economic downturn at home, grew by just 4.13% (95,899). Six out of 16 identified countries including the important Germany reported single digit declines except Austria (-35%). Laos’ main suppliers from Europe are France and UK and they still grew 11.46% and 4.4% respectively.

Arrivals from the Americas were positive from the US and Canada. The average growth during the six month period was 11.54% (+9.94% from the US and 21.5% from Canada).

The smallest regional market - Africa and the Middle East - dropped slightly by 3.68% to 3,563.

Top 10 source countries for international arrivals to Laos January to June 2012

From Threeland Travel's Blog - July 2012

International Arrivals into Laos during the first half of 2012 by Month

From Threeland Travel's Blog - July 2012

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