This website is provided by the JICA Project Team to disseminate the project information, including activities carried out and anticipated, to all the concerned parties.
For those who are looking for tourist information in Laos, please visit Ministry of Infromation, Culture and Tourism's website.
April 2012
In April, project activities were inactive due to annual budgetary renewal in accordance with the Japanese fiscal year. Almost expenditure was suspended for one month period.
However, the project team members continued working at the offices in Vientiane and Savannakhet, or in Tokyo, to conduct some follow-up activities and preparation for the coming activities.
Meanwhile, self-reliance activities of Lao counterparts related to the Visit Laos Year flourished in this month, especially in the occasion of Lao New Year events.
New You Tube Video Clips Uploaded
The 3 new video clips edited by the project counterpart team were uploaded to Visit Laos Year 2012 Channel on You Tube. The first one is titled "Simply Beautiful Laos: Culture Digest", the second is "CBT (Community-Based Tourism) Training in Pilot Provinces" and the third is "Pilot Province Coordination Meeting in Champasak".
Please visit our Visit Laos Year 2012 Channel!
Visit Laos Year 2012 Facebook Pages
Almost 10 months have passed since Visit Laos Year 2012 Facebook pages in 4 languages were established. During this period, our counterpart team members have continued uploading related information and pictures. As a result, a lot of concerned people from all over the world visited and interacted. JICA Project Team members and volunteers also contributed to the Facebook pages in cooperation with the counterpart members.
The picture on the right illustrates the trends of the numbers of "Lifetime Likes", in other words those who like to follow the Facebook pages. As you see, the number of each language version is steadily increasing.
Facebook is not difficult for our counterparts to keep updating. Now, our counterparts are working hard for upgrading the Lao tourism website.
Visit one or more of the Visit Laos Year 2012 Facebook pages that you can interact!
English: http://www.facebook.com/visitlaos
Lao language: http://www.facebook.com/visitlaos.lao
Thai language: http://www.facebook.com/visitlaos.th
Japanese: http://www.facebook.com/visitlaos.jp
Visit Laos Year on the Vientiane Times
The Vientiane Times is the only English daily newspaper in Laos. The number of daily circulation is estimated at around 4,000 copies. It is not exaggerated that almost expatriates in Laos read this daily newspaper.
Since the beginning of the year, the Vientiane Times started to put the official "Visit Laos Year 2012" logo on the top page. In addition, tourism or travel articles have been posted frequently to promote various tourist sites in the country.
This is one of the results of Visit Laos Year Action Plan that LPP Tourism Promotion Component worked out together with our counterpart.
Lao New Year Celebrations
The majority of Lao people are Buddhists who follow the Buddhist Calendar. And, the month of April is the beginning of the Buddhist Calendar.
As a part of Visit Laos Year 2012 events, Lao New Year (Pi Mai Lao) celebrations were undertaken in the whole country in cooperation between the public and private sectors.
In Luang Prabang, various events during the Lao New Year lasted for 10 days. In Champassak Province, a 1-week festival was held based in the Bolaven Plateau town of Pakson. In Savannakhet town, 2 main streets were decorated with Visit Laos Year banners which all the visitors could recognize important tourist sites in the province.
In addition to the traditional "water splashing", there were a lot of activities including Miss New Year Contests, singing contests and concerts, traditional dancing performance or parades, various religious ceremonies, etc.
In this way, both the Lao people and foreign visitors on the occasion of Lao New Year enjoyed Visit Laos Year 2012 events.
Eco-Tourism Training in Okinawa and Indonesia
One of the counterpart members in Savannakhet Province is currently participating in the training program titled "Planning and Management of Eco-Tourism in Tropical and Sub-Tropical Areas in Asia and Oceania Region" organized by JICA Okinawa Center.
The training lasts from April 11, 2012 to July 7, 2012, for the first 10 weeks in Okinawa and for the last 2 weeks in Indonesia. The participants are from 8 different countries.
Upon her return, the Lao participant is expected to contribute to LPP tourism promotion component, especially in the area of community-based tourism development.
Preparation for Laos Festival in Tokyo
The bi-annual Laos Festival will be held Yoyogi Park in the center of Tokyo between May 26 and 27, 2012 in cooperation among various parties concerned.
Since this year is the Visit Laos Year, Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism will open the Festival. LPP Tourism Promotion Component together with our counterparts will also make an exhibition on the tourism in Laos.
Please visit the festival if you will be in Tokyo at the time. More information is available from Official Laos Festival website or its Facebook page (Note that both sites are only in Japanese language).
LPP Eco-Plaza at Wattay International Airport
LPP Tripartite Cooperation Unit has recently established a model shop at Wattay International Airport in Vientiane to promote eco-friendly products of Laos and to provide useful information on tourist sites in Laos. The shop operated by Lao Youth Union is expected to disseminate positive images of Clean, Green and Beautiful Laos.
Prior to the opening of the model shop, an intensive staff training program was conducted. Tourism Promotion Component, in cooperation with our counterpart MICT, conducted the training on tourist information. The information to be distributed at the model shop is same as that provided by the public-private joint Tourist Information Service (TIS). The shop staff participated on-the-job base training at MICT Tourist Information Center for 3 days.
March 2012
Video Clip "Welcome all travelers from around the world!" Reached 9,000 Views
This is a promotion video clip for Visit Laos Year uploaded to You Tube Channel at the end of January 2012. The number of views of this video clip reached more than 9,000 by the end of March 2012.
If you have not seen it, visit our Visit Laos Year Channel on You Tube to see Simply Beautiful Laos!
Tourism Promotion Training for Mekong Area
A 4-week intensive training was organized by JICA between February 20 and March 17 in Osaka, Japan. From Laos, 3 trainees joined in this training program: 1 from MICT, 1 from PTD Luang Prabang and 1 from PTD Champassak. Participants from Myanmar and Vietnam also joined in the same program.
Thus, the expected outcome of this training program was to formulate an action plan for necessary policy or project formulation through repeated discussions with counterparts in neighboring countries. To foster useful discussions, the training program included lectures, group discussions, site visits, etc.
On March 15, a presentation meeting of action plan was held and shared by TV meeting system with original countries of the trainees. Participants from Laos also made good presentation.
The 2nd LPP Steering Committee Meeting
The second LPP Steering Committee Meeting was held on March 12, 2012 at Lao Plaza Hotel in Vientiane with participation of representatives from all the concerned organizations in Laos, from ASEAN Secretariat and from JICA Headquarters in Tokyo as well.
The meeting was chaired by Dr. Bounthavy Sisouphanthong, Vice Minister of Planning and Investment, and co-chaired by Dr. Khiane Phansourivong, Director General of ASEAN Department, Ministry of Foreign Affaires of Laos, Dr. Somsak Pipoppinyo, Director, Finance, Industry and Infrastructure Directorate of ASEAN Secretariat and Mr. Masato Togowa, Chief Representative of JICA Office in Laos.
In the meeting, activities conducted in the past 1 year were presented and shared among the participants. Activities under each of 3 components including tourism promotion, environment and safety agriculture were also presented. From ASEAN Secretariat, progress and mechanism of Initiatives for ASEAN Integration (IAI) were presented.
After each presentation, issues and prospects were summarized by the participants. Finally, activity plan for the year 2012 presented by Mr. Fumio Kikuchi was approved by all the participants.
It was really a good opportunity to understand the whole picture of Laos Pilot Program.
Joint Monitoring and Survey with ADB Mission in Savannakhet
On March 9 and 10, a joint monitoring and survey in the eastern part of Savannakhet Province were conducted. A monitoring and survey team composed of MICT, PTD Savannakhet, ADB Bangkok and JICA Project visited several sites on March 9, and hold a lap up meeting on March 10.
The joint team firstly visited the road side station construction site in Phine District. The road side station consists of a tourist information center including eco-guide unit office, 4 handicraft and souvenir shops, clean toilets for visitors and parking lots. The buildings are almost completed. The station is expected to serve as the tourist base for trekking in Dong Phou Vieng National Protected Area and for exploring the historical Ho Chi Minh Trail.
The joint team then visited Ban Nong Nyang village located 2.5 km from the center of Phine District, where local liquor made of rice "Lao-Lao" is widely produced among villagers. In this village ADB is constructing a building for distillation equipment, an office-shop building and a clean toilet for visitors. These facilities will be used and managed by the local community.
LPP Tourism Promotion Component can cooperate with these ADB-funded small infrastructure sites for further development of community-based tourism.
Handicraft Study Tour in Khammouane
A study tour to Mahaxay Village was organized on March 6, 2012 by inviting 5 representatives of the women group of Ban Tham Xang (Elephant Cave) interested in developing weaving products.
In Mahaxay Village, a weaving center that with an oultet shop has been established and operated since several years. The women from both the villages exchanged views and experiences, and visited some places where the natural dying and weaving are practiced.
After coming back home, the women group of Ban Tham Xang started to make a weaving product development plan. The activities include the training on natural dying and weaving, and procurement of necessary equipment. It is expected that their products will be offered for visitors to the Elephant Cave by the end of this year.
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