International Tourist Arrivals and Tourism Income of Laos (2015-2020) and Forecast 2025

648,067,008 USD (down -8.73%). In 2018, there were DL visitors to

4,186,432 arrivals, generating an income of 811,010,661 USD (up 8.21%). In 2019, there were 4,791,065 tourists visiting, generating an income of 934,710,409 USD (up 14.4%) and the number of days tourists stayed was 5 days. In 2020 alone, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been affecting many aspects of socio-economic life in the country and in the locality, strongly affecting tourism activities in the province/city. From the first months of 2020 until now, the service and tourism industry has continued to decline sharply in both revenue and number of visitors compared to the previous year: in 2020, there were only 886,447 tourists visiting (a decrease of 3,904,618 people compared to 2019) and generated an income of 213,367,141 USD (a decrease of -81.5%) compared to 2019. Specifically, see table 4.1:

Table 4.1: International tourist arrivals and tourism income in Laos (2015-2020) and forecast 2025

Year

Number of visitors (turns)	Change (%)	Date of stay	Income (USD)
2015	4,684,429	13.0	4.8	725.365.681
2016	4,239,047	- 10.0	4.8	724.191.957
2017	3,868,838	- 8.73	5.2	648.067.008
2018	4,186,432	8.21	5.0	811.010.661
2019	4,791,065	14.4	5.0	934.710.409
2020	886,447	- 81.5	5.0	213,367,141
Forecast
2025	5,823,202	20	9.0	1,210,169,259

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Source: [ 47].

Table 4.1 shows that: By 2025, the number of tourists coming to Laos is estimated to reach 5,823,202, generating an average income of 1,210,169,259 USD (an increase of 20%) and the number of days tourists stay will be 9 days. By 2025, the Lao tourism industry strives to become a country with a developed tourism industry such as:

- Focus on building a system of unique and high-quality tourism products on the basis of promoting the value of unique tourism resources with outstanding strengths.

- Prioritize the development of cultural tourism as a foundation, develop ecological tourism, green tourism, humanistic tourism, spiritual tourism, resorts, entertainment, etc.

- Linking "regional product development" with regions and areas in the country and neighboring countries.

- Laos' important tourism markets are the Asia-Pacific region such as China, Japan, Korea and Australia; the European and American regions are France, UK, Germany and the US, etc.; the ASEAN region is Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, etc.

For the development of tourism in the South Central provinces of Lao PDR, it is inseparable from the general development of the tourism industry in the international and domestic context. Therefore, it is necessary to correctly recognize the development trends of the tourism industry in the region, the area and the world, which will create opportunities for orienting the development of the tourism industry in the South Central provinces of Lao PDR in a suitable manner in the integration period, towards sustainable tourism development.

4.1.2. Goals and directions for tourism economic development in the South Central provinces, Lao People's Democratic Republic to 2030

4.1.2.1. Goals for tourism economic development in the South Central provinces of the Lao People's Democratic Republic by 2030

- Effectively exploit and promote the potential of eco-tourism and cultural tourism.

Culture - History, strive to develop tourism into an important economic sector of the South Central provinces by 2025 - 2030 and become the tourism center of the South Central region.

- Focus on completing the "construction of infrastructure and technical facilities to ensure the sustainable development of ecological tourism and cultural - historical tourism in the South Central provinces" Ministry.

- Manage and improve the service quality of tourism service establishments (hotels, restaurants, etc.) to meet national and international standards.

- Improve and enhance the quality of existing tourism products, especially focusing on eco-tourism and spiritual tourism products; at the same time, build a number of new products with unique characteristics and high competitiveness.

- Steady growth in visitor numbers, strong increase in tourism revenue through high-class, high-spending visitor markets by focusing on investment and improving the quality of high-end tourism services. Forecast by 2025 the number of

The number of tourists to the South Central provinces is estimated to reach more than 10 million people, generating income of about 1,600 million kip.

- Annually organize regional tourism festivals to attract more and more domestic and international tourists to the South Central provinces.

- Develop a tourism program in combination with Vietnam and Thailand to organize a tourism route in the Central region of the three countries, following the East-West economic corridor.

4.1.2.2. Direction for continued development of tourism economy in the South Central provinces, Lao People's Democratic Republic until 2030

To accelerate the development speed and achieve high efficiency, contributing to the cause of national construction in general, and in particular, the construction and development of the South Central provinces is based on the potential strengths of tourism and the current status of tourism development of those provinces to determine the main directions for tourism development as follows:

Firstly, sustainable development of tourism actively accelerates the development of the productive forces of tourism in the South Central provinces towards a modern, integrated and highly competitive tourism industry: Tourism development policy in this direction is to contribute to the successful implementation of the country's industrialization and modernization, building a prosperous and strong society. Therefore, tourism needs to bring about changes in all areas of social life from political economy to national security and defense, culture, society, environmental protection, thereby promoting international economic integration activities. The South Central region has a strategic position in terms of political economy and national security and defense for the whole country. In addition, the South Central region concentrates many unique natural resources and valuable historical and cultural relics. The growth of a sustainable tourism industry contributes to socio-economic development, achieving the set goals, and preserving cultural values. Thus, tourism development needs to be placed in relation to other areas, especially national defense and security, in order to have measures to prevent unwanted negative impacts from tourism development on society and nature. In addition, tourism development in the South Central provinces needs to be planned in a way that not only maximizes the historical, religious, cultural, and scenic values of the region and preserves the environment, but also preserves and increasingly enhances the value of national culture, thereby helping the South Central provinces become national tourism centers.

Second, gradually perfecting production relations, combining sectors and economic sectors to liberate means of production and resources for the development of tourism in the South Central provinces: Tourism is a comprehensive economic sector with high inter-sectoral, inter-regional and socialization. Thus, when developing the tourism sector, it requires the support of other socio-economic sectors, including transportation, national security and defense, environment, insurance, health, etc. However, this relationship is two-way, the development of the tourism sector brings high socio-economic efficiency, which will create conditions for other economic sectors to develop. The mutual impact in the above relationship creates a requirement for the development of the tourism sector in the South Central region, which is to have a correct understanding of the role of linkages between sectors. On that basis, there is direction and close coordination with other sectors in the development process. If the interdisciplinary nature of tourism development can be promoted, it will mobilize economic sectors to participate in order to exploit all resources for the development of the South Central Coast tourism sector. Promoting the role of economic sectors will arouse all possibilities and effectively exploit all resources such as capital, knowledge, technology, labor, etc. domestically and internationally.

Therefore, the development of tourism is the task and responsibility of all levels, sectors, people's organizations and social organizations. In the process of planning and organizing the implementation of tourism development planning in the South Central provinces, it is necessary to promote the combined strength, ensure high unity and close coordination between all levels, sectors, social organizations and all people in the South Central region. To exploit the potential of economic sectors, mobilize all local resources, combine with the support of the Central Government and neighboring provinces to invest in tourism development in order to quickly turn tourism into an important economic sector at the beginning of the 21st century and a spearhead economic sector in the future.

Third, combining tourism in the South Central region with national tourism and international tourism: On the basis of the process of globalization and regionalization, the development of each State is always governed and bound by each other through international economic institutions both bilaterally and multilaterally. Like other economic sectors, tourism cannot avoid the above inevitable trend. The South Central provinces have many

Attractive tourist destinations with convenient exchange locations, diverse, rich and unique tourism resources for tourism development, in addition to promoting internal resources, tourism in the South Central provinces needs to take advantage of external resources in its development process. International economic integration and cooperation will help the tourism industry in the South Central provinces gradually penetrate into regional and international markets to attract investment capital, tourists, take advantage of support for human resource development, and strengthen tourism promotion in the South Central provinces. In order to meet the increasing demand for tourism, it is necessary to focus on investing in upgrading infrastructure, technical facilities, and diversifying tourism products to attract more and more domestic and foreign tourists to the South Central provinces. In the development process, it is necessary to have proactive business plans, based on forecasts of tourist traffic and their needs in the coming time.

Fourth, tourism development must be associated with ensuring national security and defense, preserving national cultural identity and the environment: Tourism development, on the one hand, has the effect of increasing economic growth, improving the cultural and spiritual life of the people, but on the other hand, it poses difficulties in maintaining national security and social order and safety. The South Central provinces are part of the economic, political and cultural center of the country. Therefore, in the strategic development orientation, solutions on tourism space planning, management organization, etc. It is necessary to thoroughly grasp, analyze and evaluate the market, orient tourism marketing work to ensure national security and social order and safety, strictly prohibit tourism activities that harm national security and the fine customs of local people. In particular, strictly handle all disturbances and acts of using the name of tourists to carry out political tasks to ensure political security and social order and safety. Developing tourism in the South Central provinces also needs to be associated with protecting a clean social environment. There needs to be strict management measures to prevent negative influences, harmful cultural flows, etc. from entering with tourists from many different regions and countries, which can harm the cultural and social environment of that locality.

4.2. MAIN SOLUTIONS TO DEVELOP TOURISM ECONOMY IN THE SOUTH CENTRAL PROVINCES OF THE LAOS PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC BY 2030

4.2.1. Group of solutions to continue promoting the development of economic and tourism production forces in the South Central provinces, Lao People's Democratic Republic

4.2.1.1. Solutions for training tourism human resources in the South Central provinces, Lao People's Democratic Republic

Human resources are the decisive resource for the development of all sectors and fields. Tourism as a service economic sector, the human factor becomes even more important. To improve the quality of human resources serving tourism development, the South Central provinces need to implement the following solutions:

Firstly, strengthen propaganda and mobilization work to raise awareness among workers and society about the role, position and importance of the tourism industry in the socio-economic development of the region, thereby educating the awareness of learning to improve the professional qualifications of workers and all classes of people.

Second, strengthen the connection to develop a network of training facilities and foster human resources for tourism at the regional level. In particular, it is necessary to pay attention to investing in tourism training schools in key tourism centers such as: Vientiane Capital, Luang Prabang and Chan Pa Sac. Vientiane Capital has the advantage of a system of universities and colleges with experience in training human resources for the tourism industry (tour guides, tourism management, hotels, etc.) that can directly train for the locality or cooperate to support training. At the same time, it is necessary to form a tourism training department in vocational schools in the remaining localities.

Third, organize investigations, surveys, and correctly assess the current situation of cadres, civil servants, and laborers working in the tourism industry, on that basis, develop a strategy for training and fostering human resources, from state management officials, tourism activity managers to all laborers in the tourism industry of the South Central provinces from now until 2025 and 2030. The training strategy must be comprehensive, reasonable, and suitable to the requirements of tourism development, develop specific projects, plans, and projects; train and foster both ideology, thinking, qualities, ethics, state management level, professional skills, foreign language proficiency, and ability.

communication skills, and importantly, the level of understanding of world culture and history, culture and history of Laos and the South Central provinces. In addition, planning to train and retrain a number of workers who are working in the tourism industry with potential; must consider training and fostering talents for tourism in the South Central provinces, so that in the future, the South Central region will have tourism experts, continuing to explore, research, and exploit the priceless hidden values to develop tourism in the South Central provinces.

Fourth, training forms must be diversified, and training and human resource development for tourism must be socialized. Encourage the opening of non-public training facilities and facilities with legal foreign investment, diversify the types of schools, classes, and training centers, and human resource development for tourism in the whole region to form a training network at many levels. In addition, organize short-term, non-formal training courses to train the workforce working in the tourism industry according to a reasonable, professional, and practical occupational structure to meet the needs of the tourism industry in the coming time and can increase the scale of training to improve the quality of direct workers in the tourism industry, providing necessary skills for indirect workers and residents in the region participating in tourism business activities.

Fifth, the training and development of tourism human resources needs to encourage businesses, link training facilities to participate in on-site training programs, short-term training, and socialize vocational training to quickly provide human resources for tourism development. Closely link training facilities - hotels, tourism units - tourism vocational training centers to combine theoretical training with practice, to improve the quality of human resources for tourism. In addition, to improve the level of awareness, communication skills, civilized and friendly attitudes of local communities at tourism destinations. At the same time, it is necessary to equip knowledge of history and culture of each locality so that people can convey the unique features of their homeland to tourists.

4.2.1.2. Promoting the application of science and technology to serve the tourism economy in the South Central provinces of the Lao People's Democratic Republic

Researching the application of science and technology in tourism development is an extremely necessary requirement. To carry out this work, it is necessary to focus on the following basic contents:

Firstly, adequately allocate resources for applied research, strongly develop high technology to serve the field of state management of tourism, propose strategies for developing tourism products and markets in the region, increasingly diversifying in scale and quantity, improving the quality of tourism goods, creating the ability for tourism integration of the South Central provinces with regions across the country, each estimated to be on par with the region and the world.

Second, develop information technology applications in tourism activities. At the same time, organize training courses, guide, coach, and foster tourism businesses, make tourism business more and more effective, operate healthily, improve competitiveness, and meet market demand.

Third, raise awareness of environmental protection, save natural resources such as clean energy, clean water, etc. through the application of modern technology, and promote awareness among tourists. Thereby, limit pollution and waste.

Fourth, applying modern scientific and technological achievements to develop tourism in the region requires the participation of the whole society, especially the coordination of research institutes and universities to build application programs and develop technology in the tourism field. The application of modern science and technology to tourism activities in the South Central provinces can be in the following basic directions:

- Promote the application of information technology in tourism economic management by creating a management information system in the South Central region connected to domestic and international information centers.

- Applying the network connection of the entire hotel system in the region and international border gates to effectively count tourists.

- Apply online tourism business models (buying and selling hotel rooms, booking tours online...) to gradually shift to an e-commerce model in tourism when the conditions for technology infrastructure and legal corridors are adequate.

- Applying information and communication technology (internet, wifi, building a separate TV channel for tourism, advertising on famous TV channels...) in tourism promotion activities of the South Central region and the tourism industry.

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