Neigbours boost Lao arrivals

Lao National Tourism Administration released, Tuesday, data that indicates a strong 22.8% growth in tourism over the first six months of the year.

Neighbours, Thailand and Vietnam, provided 80% of the 1,485,462 foreign visitors, with other ASEAN countries showing an above average growth of 29.53%.

LNTA projects tourist arrivals at 2,662,556 by the end of the year, representing a 6% increase over 2010 and generating a revenue increase  of 4.6% to US$399,122,419.

Thailand and Vietnam, the top and the second suppliers, had a market share of 58.25% and 22.11% of all arrivals respectively.

During the six-month period tourists from Thailand reached 865,308 up 19.13% from 726,346.

Vietnamese tourists totalled 328,490, skyrocketing 70.59% from 192,565 during the first six months of last year.

Although ASEAN visitors generate much lower spending per day than long-haul visitors, they travel all year round and inject a steady flow of revenue to Lao tourism industry.

Apart from ASEAN that reported healthy growth, other regions increased only minimally or even dipped. Arrivals from Asia and Pacific, excluding ASEAN, dropped – 4.65%; Europe, +4.33%; the Americas, +3.17% and Africa and Middle East, +14.41%.

By country markets, performance varied. Tourists from Russia drastically rose 74.63% from 2,006 to 3,503, an indicator that the market will improve further this year as Russians explore new destinations close to Thailand.

Cambodia also reported a118% growth from the Russian market for January to June. Thailand and Vietnam have seen a healthy growth of around 70%.

Other source countries reporting strong growth rates included: Brunei (+138%, 202); Taiwan (+81%, 3,076); Austria (+72%, 2,094); Israel (+42%, 2,015) and Indonesia (+37%, 1,394).

Countries with declines included: Cambodia (-12%, 3,369); China (-17%, 76,271); India (-1%, 1,510); Denmark (-6%, 2,779); Germany (-3.5%, 11,584); Greece (-32%, 218); Italy (-1%, 3,370); Netherland (-5%, 4,494); United Kingdom (-5%, 18,217) and USA (-0.4%, 25,403)

Source - ttrweekly