Laos launches post-pandemic tourism recovery roadmap

The Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism has launched a roadmap on post-pandemic tourism recovery in the 2021-2025 period, which will focus on promoting domestic travel.

Foreign tourists in Laos. (Photo: laotiantimes)
Foreign tourists in Laos. (Photo: laotiantimes)

Lao Deputy Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Ounthuang Khaophanh, said the scheme will introduce measures to address crucial issues of the tourism sector in a bid to solve impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The roadmap covers three main objectives, namely to support and promote domestic tourism, establish travel bubbles with countries with low risks, and develop green and sustainable tourism.

In 2020, the tourist traffic to Laos dropped by 75 percent, resulting in a loss of 80 percent of overall tourism revenue because of travel restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The Lao Ministry of Health on October 25 confirmed 615 new COVID-19 cases and one more death in the past 24 hours, raising the country’s total infections and fatalities to 36,248 and 53, respectively.