Hanoi mulls ambitious tourist schemes with Laos

      Travel experts from Luang Pra Bang province of Laos met Hanoi colleagues on March 20 to discuss cooperation during their visit to Vietnam.
In their programme of cooperation, the tourism administrations from Hanoi and Luang Pra Bang focused on advertisement campaigns, exchange of information and experiences, investment in tourism and setting up special tours from the Vietnamese capital and the Lao province and adjacent tourist attractions.
Hanoi boasts 15 resorts ideal for week-end vacations, 3,000 sites of historic interest and over 1,200 traditional craft villages.
The capital city welcomed 9.2 million holiday makers annually, including 1.3 million foreigners. The national metropolis of culture is preparing for a National Year of Tourism in 2010 in celebration of its millennium anniversary.
Luang Pra Bang is a province of great potential for tourism, especially eco-tourism. The recent past witnessed an increasing number of tourists traveling by air or on road from Hanoi to Luang Pra Bang and vice versa. The province, bordering Vietnam, is a venue of foreign tourists before scattering to other provinces in Laos, which has so far welcomed more European and Asian arrivals from Hanoi than from Thailand.
Also on discussion were connections of beauty spots in Luang Pra Bang with Vietnam’s world heritage sites.
The guests also revealed a scheme to work with Hanoi on tours that include tourist sites in Cambodia, making a chain of special and attractive products.