A Lao – Viet Nam tourism promotion conference was held in the Lao capital of Vientiane on July 19, featuring the participation of nearly 100 delegates representing tourism agencies and enterprises from the two countries.
A performance of Vietnamese traditional musical instruments at the conference
Speaking at the conference, Vice Chairman of the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism Ha Van Sieu said that in addition to marine tourism destinations and special cultural features, tourism routes connecting the two countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region will be introduced and promoted during the event.
Viet Nam and Lao have signed numerous cooperation agreements on tourism, including the Tourism Cooperation Agreement signed in 1991 and Cooperation Plan on Culture, Arts and Tourism for the 2016-2020 period. These agreements are an important basis for the two sides to strengthen their tourism cooperation in the near future.
Director General of Lao National Tourism Administration Sounh Manivong expressed his appreciation of Viet Nam’s support in promoting Lao tourism and stressed the necessity to enhance the cooperation between the two countries in multilateral forums.
At the conference, the delegates discussed issues related to tourism management and promotion, as well as introducing and exchanging information on tourism service business activities.
In 2016, Viet Nam welcomed over 137,000 visitors from Lao, while around one million Vietnamese visited Laos. Laos is among the 15 leading tourism markets of Viet Nam and Viet Nam is the second largest market to Laos.
In the first six month of this year, a large number of visitors from other countries, particularly Europe, the US, Australia and Japan, visited both Lao and Viet Nam via tours connecting Lao centres and heritages sites with Viet Nam’s famous destinations. This is the result of the cooperation between the two countries in tourism promotion over recent times.
Director of Mekong Leisura Lao Travel Company Somdy Manivong said that currently, Lao travel enterprises want to join in tourism promotion conferences and forums in Viet Nam to seek more information on this market.