From January to August, Laos welcomed a complete of two.6 million worldwide guests whereas seeing roughly 2.3 million home vacationers, in accordance with the Tourism Improvement Division beneath the Ministry of Data, Tradition, and Tourism.
Thailand accounted for the best variety of overseas vacationers visiting Laos, adopted by Vietnam and China, which ranked second and third, respectively. Though particular vacationer figures from every nation weren’t disclosed, the report signifies that Thailand leads within the variety of guests.
Different notable sources embrace South Korea, america, France, the UK, Russia, Japan, and Germany.
In August alone, Laos welcomed over 500,000 overseas vacationers and recorded round 400,000 native vacationers exploring totally different components of the nation. In comparison with the identical interval final yr, worldwide tourism elevated by 18.8 p.c, whereas home journey surged by 84.22 p.c.
Worldwide vacationers have generated an estimated USD 801.3 million to date this yr, whereas home vacationers have contributed roughly USD 388.3 million.
To additional enhance tourism, Laos has launched visa exemptions for residents from 36 international locations, together with main markets like China, Japan, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
The nation additionally carried out visa-free entry for Chinese language guests as a part of the “Go to Laos Yr 2024” marketing campaign, alongside multiple-entry visas and prolonged keep durations from 30 to 60 days for vacationers from international locations comparable to Australia, New Zealand, america, Canada, and several other European nations.
The Lao authorities stays optimistic about the way forward for tourism, setting a goal to welcome at the very least 4.6 million worldwide guests in 2024, with an anticipated income of USD 1.3 billion.