New China-Laos Railway Fuels Tourism in Luang Prabang

via Nikkei Asia, 11 February 2024: As highlighted in my newsletter this week, the opening of a cross-border railway in April 2023 has significantly boosted tourism in Luang Prabang attracting a surge of Chinese tourists to the ancient capital’s historic sites and cultural landmarks.

The railway stretches approximately 1,000 kilometers from the Lao capital, Vientiane, close to the Thai border, through Luang Prabang to Kunming in Yunnan province, China. Construction is estimated to have cost $6 billion, with about 60% covered by loans from the Export-Import Bank of China as part of Beijing’s much-ballyhooed Belt and Road Initiative.

According to the Lao government, the number of foreign tourists who visited the country from January to September 2023 ballooned to 2.49 million — 3.8 times more than the same period last year. Though not reaching the pre-COVID levels of 2019, the inbound tourist count in the first nine months of 2023 surpassed the 1.29 million foreign tourist arrivals in 2022. Chinese travelers accounted for nearly 20% of the total with 470,000 visitors.

The Lao government has designated 2024 as the year to ramp up efforts to lure tourists. Kenichiro Yamada of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Vientiane Office noted, “The Lao government aims to use its increased exposure as the ASEAN chair to boost the country’s foreign currency earnings, mainly through tourism.”

However, while the nation’s tourist industry perks up, Laotians grapple with economic hardship as the rising cost of living squeezes incomes.

Source: New railway from China boosts tourism in Laos’ ancient capital – Nikkei Asia