Laos, Guangxi to promote Visit Laos-China Year

Officials from the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism and the Culture and Tourism Department of China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region met in Vientiane on Wednesday to further promote tourism in the two countries.
A seminar on tourism in Guangxi was led by the Deputy Director General of the Tourism Marketing Department under the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr Bounlap Douangphoumy, and the Deputy Director General of the Guangxi Culture and Tourism Department, Mr Huang Yanxi.
The two countries are now observing 2019 as Visit Laos-China Year. This coincides with the 58th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Laos and China, and the ministry in collaboration with the Guangxi Culture and Tourism Department organised the seminar to familiarise the audience with the area’s attractions.
Before the seminar, the ministry and travel agencies from Laos and Shanghai organised a welcome dinner for a group of 150 tourists from Shanghai Municipality. They are the first group of tourists from Shanghai to come to Laos during Visit Laos-China Year.
The group will visit tourist attractions in Vientiane and some provinces in Laos during their stay until Saturday.
Laos shares a border with China and the two countries have long-standing and close relations in terms of cooperation in politics, economics and tourism.
The two countries have continuously worked to improve infrastructure to facilitate tourism, especially by adding flights between Laos and Chinese cities such as Guangzhou, Nanning, Kunming, Shanghai and Beijing, said Mr Bounlap.
Tourism is expected to grow exponentially when the Laos-China railway opens in 2021, as it will enable easy travel for the people of the two countries as well as other tourists, he added.
Laos recorded more than 4.1 million foreign visitors in 2018, an increase of 8.2 percent compared to 2017. More than 800,000 tourists came from China last year, an increase of 26 percent compared to 2017.
This year, the government estimates that more than one million Chinese nationals will visit Laos and hopes to attract 4.5 million visitors in total.

By Phetsamone Chandala
(Latest Update July 29, 2019)