Laos attracting travellers from Australia

It is possible that some more adventurous Aussie travellers will have visited Laos, but now the Government of Laos has identified tourism as one if its biggest future income earners and is keen to attract more visitors, especially Australians.

Mr Kettasone Sundara of the Prime Minister’s Office and Loa National Tourism Administration told me at ITE HCMC 2010 that Australians and especially attracting more, are very important to the future of tourism in Laos and that is one of the reasons Laos has joined forces with Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam to market Laos.

Tourism to Laos really only started less than ten years ago, but it is a country that seems to be to worth discovering and one eTBTV will be visiting in the future.

The population of Laos is about 5m and the national language of Laos is Lao, with about 60% of the population Theravada Buddhists, introduced to Laos in the late 13th century, enhanced by whata re described as traditional animist beliefs and spirit worship, which were both popular before Buddhism.

Laos is landlocked covering around 235,000 sq kms and it shares borders with China to the north, Vietnam to the East, Cambodia to the south and Thailand and Myanmar to the west and there are three distinct seasons, the rainy season of the south-west monsoon from June to November, followed by a short, cool dry period from November to January, which develops into a hot dry season from February through May, with average daytime temperatures generally range from 25C to 30C, but can drop to 10C in the mountainous areas of the country in the north.  

Food in Laos is very similar to that of its neighbour Thailand, with freshwater fish popular, with local specialities including laap, a salad of minced meat, lime juice, garlic, green onions, mint and chillies.

Getting to Laos is now a lot easier with carriers including Thai Airways, Bangkok Airways, Siem Reap Airways, Yunnan Airlines, Vietnam Airlines and Silk Air, offering direct flights to Vientiane from Bangkok, Chang Mai, Hanoi, Saigon, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Kunming and Singapore.

Sourced=etravelblackboard