Sakura plantation to attract more visitors to Huaphan

Sakura plantation to attract more visitors to Huaphan

Huaphan province will start planting Japanese Sakura early next year to attract more visitors to the province after about two years of trial planting and preparation.

“We have now prepared more than 200 saplings of Sakura with Japanese technical cooperation,” the Huaphan Governor, Dr Khamhoung Heuangvongsy, said yesterday.

“This will promote growth in the tourism sector and bring income into the province in the near future.”

“The official Sakura plantation will be established in February in Viengxay district,” Dr Khamhoung said.

“The project will be a symbol of the 60th anniversary of cooperation between Laos and Japan. It has been approved by the governments of both countries.”

The Sakura will be planted on an area of about 1.5 hectares. If the project goes well, the province will expand the plantation into a larger area in Viengxay.

“We expect to make a Sakura Park on one of the mountains to create another tourist attraction in the district,” he said.

“We hope to turn Viengxay into a larger tourism destination in the province. The district is already one of the historic tourism sites of Huaphan.”

“However, we will have to wait and see the results of the Sakura plantation over the next two or three years.”

The province hopes that the project will help in attracting more tourists, especially Japanese visitors.

“We have had more than 30,000 visitors to the province this year which has provided a large income for the province. The number of visitors has increased by about 10 to 15 percent each year.”

The Huaphan provincial tourism sector is aiming to earn an additional income of more than 3.71 billion kip in the last three months of this fiscal year, 2013/14, after recording large earnings in the first nine months, according to a recent provincial Planning and Investment Department report.

In the first nine months, the tourism sector recorded earnings of more than 10.38 billion kip, which was about 74 percent of the fiscal year plan.

The province attracted 25,910 tourists in the first nine months, which was about 73 percent of the plan.

These tourists included more than 11,400 local visitors, which was about 67 percent of the plan, while the balance of 14,500 people came from overseas.

So far the province has 139 designated tourism sites, including 49 natural tourism sites, 32 cultural sites and 58 historical sites. It also has seven hotels, 52 guesthouses, 88 restaurants and 56 entertainment venues.

The department reported that Huaphan expects socio-economic development in this fiscal year will be about 12.9 percent and that provincial gross domestic product will be worth more than 1.74 trillion.

The economic expansion will include growth in the agricultural sector of about 12.07 percent, while the industrial sector will expand by about 14.07 percent and the service sector (which includes tourism services) by about 12.06 percent.

vientiane times