Tour bookings on the rise to start the year
Tour bookings on the rise to start the year
Tour companies are expecting an increase in tourist bookings this year after seeing bookings spring up during the first three months of 2017.
A tour company representative, Ms Mani reported that the booking of tour groups visiting Laos has increased by 25 percent during the first three months as compared to the same period last year.
A tour organiser at Soutchai Travel who preferred not to be named said on Friday that the company was enjoying increasingly steady sales since earlier in the year thanks to additional promotion of Laos' tourism through a variety of websites and guidebooks around the world.
This would signal a positive sign for the hopefully resurgent tourism industry after the number of tourists visiting Laos had fallen from its target of 4.7 million to 4.1 million visitors last year.
Laos was the eighth top ranked country to visit in 2015 with over 95.25 percent of Wanderlust Travel magazine's readers voting for it while it was the 10th top ranked country in the world to visit in 2014 with over 93 percent of readers voting for it.
Ms Mani said that so far there were tour companies enjoying a constant flow of tourists, especially Korean tourists, as th ey are �word-of-mouth promoters� of popular destinations such as Vientiane, Vangvieng and the world heritage city, Luang Prabang.
She added that almost 80 percent of the booked tours at her company are now through Korean visitors.
Ms Mani explained that the influx of Korean tourists to Laos was because tour companies have improved their services and facilities such as supplying more tour information and consistently picking up their clients on time.
The increase in tourist arrivals from Korea is also the result of recently started direct flights between Vientiane and Seoul, which began a few years ago.
Korean tourists like Laos suggesting that it is peaceful, seemingly enamored with Lao culture along with the warm and humid weather.
Ms Mani adds that there is still more work to be done in improving its' services and attracting even more tourists.
So far in the first three months of the year there has also been a solid growth in visitors from China, according to a number of tour companies' official statistics.
The Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism reported that Laos received some 4.1 million visitors in 2016 which was a decrease as compared to the total 4.3 million arrivals in the previous year.
The government has projected 5 million foreign visitors in 2017, 5.3 million in 2018, 5.7 million for 2019 and around 6 million in 2020 with approximately 8.1 million visitors in 2025.
