The Luang Prabang tourism sector has been focusing on boosting
cultural tourism and sustainable development to ensure socio-economic
development in the province, according to a Luang Prabang tourism official.
Luang Prabang is one of the ancient cities of the Lao PDR that was
established more than 1,200 years ago. It is endowed with rich,
beautiful, natural scenery, historical culture, ancient temples,
architecture and unique arts and crafts. Because of these unique
qualities and attributes, UNESCO declared Luang Prabang a World Heritage
Site in 1995.
“The tourism sector has provided a huge contribution to
socio-economic development such as job creation and the improvement of
livelihoods of local people, as well as to the reduction of poverty of
people in rural areas,” said last week Luang Prabang Governor Khamkhan
Chanthavisouk.
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“Over the past 20 years of preservation and development of the World
Heritage Site, the Provincial Administration, together with Lao
multi-ethnic people, businesses and entrepreneurs both domestic and
foreign, as well as international organizations, have been working
together to preserve and maintain the cultural values of this World
Heritage Site in a sustainable manner,” said Mr Khamkhan.
As a result, lovely Luang Prabang has been a favorite tourist
destination for many consecutive years, and was nominated as “Best City”
in the Wanderlust Travel Awards.
Moreover, Luang Prabang has received the ASEAN Environmentally
Sustainable City Award and has also become a non-smoking city to promote
a healthy and smoke-free environment.
“Over the past years, Luang Prabang has been selected to host
meetings at various levels including provincial, national, sub-regional,
and ASEAN regional meetings with great success,” Mr Khamkhan said.
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We are honoured that at this time, Luang Prabang has once again been
given the honour of hosting such important ASEAN related meetings and we
do hope that we will have another opportunity to host important
meetings like this in the near future, he said.
Luang Prabang is very proud of its peacefulness and safety, and its many cultural and natural tourist attractions.
The National Tourism Committee has approved a plan to develop routes
along the Mekong River to link to Loei and Nong Khai in the northeast
with Luang Prabang and Vientiane in Laos.
At the same time, the infrastructure of the province has been
developed in order to ensure that it benefits from the ASEAN Economic
Community integration which took place in 2015.
Source - Laotian Times
