Nghe An participates in the Vietnam - Laos border tourism development workshop

At the conference, many destinations in Nghe An received attention from many travel businesses. Photo: Chung Hoang

Representatives of 20 provinces sharing the border between Vietnam and Laos attended the workshop. The Vietnamese side included the provinces of Dien Bien, Son La, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue, Quang Nam and Kon Tum. The Lao side included the provinces of Luang Prabang, Hua Phan, Attapeu, Sekong, Xieng Khouang, Bolikhamxay, Kham Muon, Xa Van Khet, Salavan and Phong Sa Ly.

Also attending were more than 50 business leaders participating in the famtrip delegation to survey tourist routes in Dien Bien province.

Vietnam and Laos share a land border of more than 2,300km long, passing through the administrative boundaries of 10 provinces and cities of each side. This is an area with development potential and a strategic location on the East-West economic corridor.

The Vietnam - Laos border area (both on the Vietnamese and Lao sides) has diverse, rich resources, high specificity, many similarities but still different, both capable of forming the characteristics of the region and complementing each other to increase attractiveness. The destinations of the two countries still have much potential that has not been fully exploited.

In recent years, many cooperation activities, product development linkage, tourism promotion within the bilateral and multilateral framework between Vietnam and Laos in general as well as Nghe An with the border provinces of Laos (Hua Phan, Xieng Khouang, Bo Ly Kham Xay) have been implemented and achieved certain results, attracting the participation of localities, agencies, associations, tourism businesses of the two countries and provinces.

With the advantage of roads, Nghe An continues to be a traditional destination for Lao tourists and Laos is one of the tourist destinations chosen by many Vietnamese people in general and Nghe An in particular. With the cooperative efforts of both sides, the exchange of tourists between the two countries in 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic) reached over 1.2 million arrivals, of which Lao tourists to Vietnam reached over 98,000 arrivals; Vietnamese tourists to Laos reached over 924,000 arrivals; in the period 2018-2020, Nghe An welcomed 9,326 arrivals from Laos.

At the workshop, delegates discussed solutions to link and cooperate in developing tourism in the Vietnam - Laos border area. Accordingly, it is necessary to combine tourism development with economic development in border localities; the two sides need to focus on researching, reviewing, and proposing breakthrough incentive mechanisms and policies that are attractive enough to attract investment capital for transport infrastructure connecting border economic zones to potential tourist destinations; review, research, and amend and supplement the content of tourism cooperation in the contents of the 2015 Vietnam - Laos Bilateral Trade Agreement into the Vietnam - Laos Trade and Tourism Cooperation Agreement.

On the sidelines of the Conference, Nghe An promoted and introduced publications, products, specialties, tourist destinations, etc. to Lao and Vietnamese delegates.