Laos Sees 10 Percent Drop in Foreign Tourist Numbers

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While Lao Nationals hit an all time high for travelling abroad in 2016, as previously reported by The Laotian Times, the number of foreign visitors entering Laos has dwindled after several consecutive years of visitor growth.

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According to statistics provided by the Tourism Development Department of the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, Laos reported an average annual growth in foreign tourist arrivals of 10.7 percent over the past five years. However,  in 2016 just over 4.23 million foreign visitors came to the country – a drop of 10 percent since 2015, 

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Collectively, visitors from the other nine ASEAN member countries dropped by an estimated 14 percent to 3 million people. Tourists from the Asia Pacific region dropped by 11 percent to  about 3.9 million people, and visitors from the Americas dropped by 3 percent to just 86,211 people.

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Though the number of tourists from some regions have increased, it is marginal compared to how many visitors the country has lost overall. Visitors from Europe, and Africa and the Middle East, increased by 2 percent and 6 percent last year to 221,952 people and 11,263 people respectively.

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 Travellers from Thailand and Vietnam, the majority of foreign visitors to Laos, dropped significantly to just over 500,000 visitors.

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An official gave several potential reasons for the decline of visitors to the country, explaining that Thailand has been encouraging their citizens to take tours in their own homeland by offering special promotions and incentives.

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This includes granting Thai nationals the ability to claim a reduction on their personal income tax, equivalent to what they spent while on holiday if they spend it within the country.

Additionally, the number of foreign tourists entering Laos in previous years was boosted by Vietnamese workers entering the country on tourist visas and finding work illegally. 

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However, governments within ASEAN, including Laos, have been strictly enforcing measures to regulate foreign workers, which is speculated to have deterred Vietnamese workers from entering Laos, thus reflecting a decrease in the number of Vietnamese in Laos on tourist visas.

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The official also brought up that the cost of living in Laos has increased and could also be a contributing factor for the vast reduction in visitors. Living costs in neighbouring countries, for example, Thailand are significantly lower than in Laos. 

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The official suggested that Laos should attempt to put more effort into attracting tourists from Muslim countries. By providing prayer rooms in public places along with promoting halal restaurants the country would be more welcoming to Muslim visitors if such facilities were provided, especially in the provinces. 

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Statistics indicate that visitors from Muslim-majority countries like Brunei and Indonesia have dropped by 44 percent and 17 percent to just 484 and 5,010 visitors respectively in 2016.

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It is urged for Lao tourist authorities to do more to promote tourism in the country, starting with an official comprehensive website where all tourism-related information can be obtained. The website should include tourist attractions, transportation, accommodation, a calendar that indicates when and where a cultural festival will take place and any other related costs visitors should anticipate.

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 It was added that  the Tourism Development Department is requesting insight from other departments regarding the decline in tourist entries in order to identify common grounds and take steps to remedy the situation.

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Tour facilitators have expressed that a lack of tourist activities, underdeveloped facilities at tourist sites, and the absence of direct flights to many countries seemingly discourage tourists and are factors that need to be addressed.

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The problem with traveling to Vietnam just because it’s cheap

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Tourists love the country because it’s cheap, but low costs come with risks.

Yet another travel list has named Vietnam among the must-visit places in the world because it’s cheap.

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This time, it’s Emily Zemler, a writer from Refinery29, who describes Vietnam as one of the best “super cheap” destinations in the world.

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“Asian destinations like Japan and Singapore can be pricy, but Vietnam is notably budget-friendly. The food, which is just as good from a street cart as it is from a sit-down restaurant, is cheap (usually less than 10 bucks a pop) and hotels are reasonable, with luxury properties averaging around $80 per night…

Don’t be afraid to sample the street food, which includes signature dishes like beef pho and bun cha, and make sure to spring for a countryside bicycle tour from Hoi An, which run $17 and up.”

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 To be fair, cost-based recommendations like these are what Vietnam, still an emerging travel destination, needs now.

It’s perfectly fine to love something when it doesn’t bankrupt you – it’s even better when that something is also good. “Cheap” is not a dirty word. We don’t need to avoid it and replace it with pretentious phrases like “budget-friendly” or “best value for your buck” when we promote a product or a travel destination.

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But “cheap” does come with a connotation: some sort of compromises must be made and accepted.

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For cheap travel, the biggest compromises are on quality and safety. In Vietnam, this can mean anything: drinking a beer that tastes like water, sleeping on a hostel bed with a dirty sheet, getting food poisoning after a meal at a delicious sidewalk joint, drinking toxic moonshine, or falling from a waterfall. And the list goes on.

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Many travelers will take these risks without blinking an eye. Ask any backpacker in Saigon and they will tell you how happy they are when they only need a few hundred bucks to travel in Vietnam. Diarrhea and those serious travel safety warnings don’t faze them one bit.

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Beijing and Phnom Penh think about becoming sister cities

Infra

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Phnom Penh and Beijing are in talks to become “sister cities”, chief of the Chinese Embassy’s political section Wang De Xin confirmed yesterday.

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According to Wang, representatives from the Beijing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, led by committee chairman Ji Lin, met with Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatvong on Monday to discuss the partnership.

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Reached by phone yesterday, the capital’s deputy governor, Khoung Sreng, said the objective of the meeting was for both countries to better understand each other.

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“The main purpose of being sister cities with Beijing would be to support each other . . . to cooperate economically and to promote cultural exchange,” he said.

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He added that one of the most important aspects of the partnership would be requesting Beijing’s assistance in areas such as infrastructure, training and the management and restoration of public spaces.

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Sreng noted that the focus of the partnership was not to attract foreign investment, but to work with Beijing in selecting local poor communities for targeted help, such as the building of homes.

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Source - PhnomPenhPost

Thailand - 3 million funeral wood flowers for King’s cremation

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Three million funeral wood flowers will be given to public mourners before the late HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s royal cremation, according to Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) Governor Pol General Aswin Kwanmuang.

The artificial flowers will be made into 36 patterns – such as roses, orchids, water lilies, cape jasmines, daffodils, zinnias and champaks – from focal natural materials like dried banana leaves and trunks and dried water hyacinths, Aswin said on Monday.

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They will be made and provided at 101 booths across Bangkok.

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Flower makers will include people from BMA schools, vocational schools and companies. 

Their models will also be given to those wishing to craft the flowers themselves.

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According to Thai tradition, wood flowers are placed in front of a deceased person’s coffin or urn as a last tribute before cremation.

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The BMA’s Social Development Department is receiving raw material donations for the flower-making process.

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Source - TheNation

Cambodia - Push to reduce chemical dependency

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The Ministry of Agriculture is working to develop a procedural framework for the trade and use of biological control agents (BCAs) in agriculture in an effort to improve crop yields, protect consumer health and ensure continued access to key export markets. Regulation could also create opportunities for the import or local production of BCA products a possibility that has piqued the interest of foreign firms.

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Speaking yesterday at a consultative meeting on regulations and national registration of biological control agents, Sam Chhom Sangha, deputy secretary-general of the Ministry of Agriculture, said the use of BCAs could provide “holistic” support to Cambodia’s struggling agriculture sector, which he claimed had been damaged by the overuse of chemical agents.

“We need to find ways to boost agricultural productivity, encourage crop resilience and diversification and improve commercialisation,” he said.

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“Our fields are under-producing and this is because the soil has been damaged by years of reckless use of chemicals.” 

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Biological control agents are an integral part of pest management programs that use natural mechanisms such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, algae or natural insect predators to protect crops from devastating plant diseases and insect infestations. While already in limited use in Cambodia, a regulatory framework on the trade and use of BCAs would facilitate the import of these products and provide solid footing for local production.

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“BCAs can improve our yields once we finalise and implement their regulation, allowing our farmers to be less dependent on chemical pesticides,” explained Sangha.The Ministry of Agriculture is working with regional experts to draft a national regulatory framework on biological control agents based on ASEAN guidelines.

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Sangha said the government must speed up its adoption of regulations or risk challenges to its agricultural exports as countries tighten restrictions on the import of contaminated products.

In one recent example, the European Commission has given Cambodian producers of white rice until June and fragrant rice until December to eliminate the use of the fungicide Tricyclazole. Failure to comply could block rice export shipments to the European Union, the Kingdom’s largest market for milled rice.

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Thomas Jaekel, a regional GIZ expert, said BCAs offers farmers an “economically and environmentally viable” way to increase yields by building crop resilience and improving soil quality. However, convincing Cambodian farmers to cut back on their chemical fertilisers and pesticides can be a challenge.

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“BCAs are used to complement, not eradicate, the use of chemicals, but the problem is that Cambodian farmers and distributors of chemicals are convinced that the more you spray your crops the better they will be,” he said.

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Jaekel noted that when Indonesia adopted ASEAN regulations in 2014 and set up the procedures for properly registering products, there was a massive uptake in applications for BCA products.

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“A week after the BCA regulation was approved in Indonesia, they had already over 10 applications from foreign and local firms trying to register their products,” he said.According to GIZ data, the Indonesian government receives almost 200 applications annually.

Sarah Anderson, a Singapore-based research and development project manager for German industrial giant BASF, said that despite BCAs having a limited market in ASEAN, there was plenty of room to grow. She said BASF, which has an entire arm dedicated to research and development of BCA products, would consider exporting to Cambodia if clear regulations were put in place.

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“The problem is that there is still a gap between government intentions and those of the traditional chemical distributors,” she said. “Easily 5 percent of the pesticide market in Cambodia could be replaced by bio-pesticides.” 

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However, she said the use of the products hinged on the government cutting red tape. “If the regulations are too strict or large companies see that costs are too high, they won’t enter the market,” she said.

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Ieng Sotheara, founder of Entree Baitang Co Ltd, said local demand for BCAs was growing. His company has been distributing Trichoderma – a naturally occurring fungicide that also protects plants against pests and toxins for the last two harvest cycles. 

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Last year, the company sold 100 tonnes of compost impregnated with Trichoderma. This year it has orders for 500 tonnes.

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Sotheara said he sells the locally-produced Trichoderma at $12 per kilo, or $400 per tonne when mixed with compost.

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“Some of the rice farmers say that it has increased their yields by 20 percent,” he said.

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Source - PhnomPenhPost

Thailand - Beautiful Surat Thani watershed forest attracts thousands of tourists.

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After its beautiful and uplifting smartphone photos circulated on Thai social media, Ban Nam Rad watershed forest in Surat Thani's Khiri Rat Nikhom district has become a popular attraction in recent months, attracting at least 1,000 visitors a day. 

The clear-water pond, about the size of a standard swimming pool, is supplied by a natural spring that the locals also believe to be holy. 

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 On behalf of the local community volunteers who oversee and take care of the attraction, Tambon Ban Tamniab kamnan Sujin Nakbumrung said: “We don't collect any fee from tourists but require them to sign a daily registration book before entering, in order to assess the best way to improve the forest conservation. 

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“We also ask that tourists adhere to regulations which include the ban on food, soap, shampoo and alcohol drinks. Some areas of the forest are also restricted, so as to keep this 2,000-rai forestland fertile and its wildlife and plants protected.”

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He said they intended to make Ban Nam Rad watershed forest a model of conservation tourism.

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Cambodia - Herd of Elephants rescued from muddy bomb crater

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Eleven wild elephants were rescued on Saturday in Mondulkiri’s Keo Seima protected area after becoming trapped in a former bomb crater without food for four days, though rangers will continue to monitor the herd to ensure it reaccepts one juvenile who was handled by humans during the rescue.

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Olly Griffin, a technical advisor with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), said the operation was a “big team effort” between civil society groups, government authorities and local villagers.

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“A large part of the credit goes to the local people from the area, who showed concern and compassion for the plight of the elephants,” Griffin said yesterday.

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The 3-metre-deep bomb crater had been repurposed as a water storage pond, and Griffin said the elephants may have been seeking water when they became trapped. 

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Keo Sopheak, director of the province’s environmental department, said the walls of the pit were too steep for the elephants to climb out of, and as the water began to dry, they became mired in the mud.

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“After we watered them, some villagers helped cut bamboo leaves for them to eat because they do not have food for four days. We dug out the sides of the pit and placed wood planks for them to walk on,” said Sopheak.

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WCS supplied equipment likes ropes and digging tools, which allowed 10 of the 11 elephants to successfully exit on their own.

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One young elephant, however, was too weak to leave unassisted. Griffin explained that as the sun began to set and the pit began to fill with rainwater, rescuers made the difficult decision to tie a rope to the young elephant and forcibly pull it out of the pit.

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“The mother may abandon the elephant,” Griffin said, noting that the herd may be spooked if the youngster smells like humans.

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“It ran off in the same direction as the rest of the herd … We will send some rangers to observe whether or not he is accepted.”

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Yan Socheat, one of village rescuers, said locals were aware that there were elephants in the area for about a week, but didn’t realise they were in trouble.

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Video footage shows rescuers pulling out the young elephant, who subsequently tramples one of his liberators as he flees. Socheat said the rescuer was stunned, but uninjured. 

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Additional reporting by Andrew Nachemson

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