Hotel boom continues
Hotel boom continues
Laos will continue new hotel construction this year as some mega projects in Vientiane and other tourism projects in the world heritage city of Luang Prabang require them.
President of the Hotel and Restaurant Association Mr Oudet Souvanavong explained the potential of the hotel growth yesterday.
Mr Oudet said there are both mega and smaller projects calling for hotel construction this year and, if everything goes according to plan, we will see more new hotels this year than last year.
In 2014 hotel construction went up by around 20 percent across the country and he thanked the industry for expanding the luxury services sector and developing hotels, restaurants and tourism sites in Laos.
According to the Tourism Development Department's report in 2013, Laos had 419 hotels and 1,788 guesthouses and resorts but there are only three five star hotels in Vientiane.
He wasn't able to predict by how many percent the growth this year would be as some of the projects, especially in Vientiane, have been delayed for various reasons.
Mr Oudet noted that in the first of three months of the year so far there has been a solid growth in visitors to Laos, especially from China and Korea.
Foreign tourists arriving in Laos in 2014 reached in excess of 4.15 million, it was announced recently, an increase of about 10 percent compared to 2013 when Laos welcomed around 3.75 million visitors to the country.
According to official statistics, Laos received some 4,158,719 visitors in 2014 compared to a total of 3,779,490 arrivals the previous year.
Visitors from neighbouring Thailand continue to dominate and represent the largest number of foreign tourists arriving in Laos, according to statistics from the Tourism Research and Administrative Division under the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism.
Foreign visitors arriving in Laos over the year came mainly from Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Americas, Africa and the Middle East.
Vietnamese nationals ranked second in numbers of foreign tourists visiting Laos after the Thais. As many as 1,108,332 Vietnamese visited Laos in 2014, an increase from the figure of 910,164 recorded in 2013.
Mr Oudet added the growth of tourists will help to push investment growth in the construction of more five star hotels and luxury resorts.
For example, the mega project Latsavong Plaza is under construction and is expected to welcome delegates for the Asean Summit in 2016 which Laos is to host.
