More than 60,000 tourists have visited Savannakhet province since the end of January, according to the Savannakhet Tourism Office last week.
“Since the opening of the second Mekong Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge , the number of visitors to the province is rising fast. We have seen a 70 percent increase,” said the Savannakhet Tourism Office Deputy Director, Mr Siha Phannavong.
The view from the top of Phou Xang Hae mountain. “Before the bridge opened, we had 10,000 to 15,000 tourist arrivals each month, but now we get a lot more.”
Some just pass through Savannakhet on their way to Laobao in Vietnam , and others travel directly to Mukdahan province in
Thailand . Other groups stay the night in Savannakhet so that they can visit places of interest nearby.
“We had discussions with Vietnamese and Thai tourist officials about how we could promote each country's tourism resources before the bridge opened, and now business is booming,” he said.
“We have various tourist agencies in the main town, and the growth in tourism is also fuelling a rise in the number of guesthouses and restaurants,” Mr Siha said.
Immediately after the bridge opened in December, there were not enough buses to bring people into the province and across to the Vietnamese border at Laobao.
“So many people came in from Thailand that we didn't have enough buses to carry them. We had to go to Vientiane to rent more vehicles,” a Savannakhet tourism agency member, Mr Jook, said.
