For the third time since 2006, the Quang Ninh Province of Vietnam once again partners with the Luang Prabang Province of Lao and Udon Thani Province of Thai for tourism development, this time covering the period from 2016-2017. The three provinces gathered for a special meeting on June 22, 2016 in Ha Long City, Quang Ninh Province, with each province presenting its own tourism models and sharing such with each other to create a single destination for the three of them.
The provinces came together in 2006 and created the World Heritage Triangle Project with the aim of advertising their UNESCO-acknowledged world heritage sites as One Destination. This composes of Quang Ninh’s Ha Long Bay, Luang Prabang of Lao and Ban Chiang of Thai, the most famous tourist destination of each province.
The new agreement targeted fresh yet sustainable tourism plans, “cross-border package tours,” education, training, and businesses, all with hopes of further increasing the number of tourists which visit the said provinces. Fairs, exhibitions, festivals, cultural shows, sports events, and programs are just some of the activities lined up to boost the tourism in the three provinces.
Udon Thani Province in particular will design a joint logo for the Heritage Triangle, while all three provinces will conduct television interviews and features to showcase each significant tourism site. The cooperation among the provinces will strengthen their world heritage sites and promote it further to the rest of the world.
The joint agreement has obviously gained promising results, as the number of visitors entering each province has significantly increased through time. Since 2015, 7.7 million tourists visited Quang Ninh Province. 2.6 million of the total number are international visitors. 600,000 visitors entered Luang Prabang, 400,000 of them foreign visitors. Udon Thani received a whopping 3.2 million tourists, 140,000 of them from different countries all over the globe. This 2016, Quang Ninh Province attracted nearly 6 million visitors in just the first six months of the year. 1.9 million of the total number of tourists were international.
Image by https://www.talkvietnam.com
Tourism officials from the three provinces are all hopeful that the boost in their tourism will continue, creating more livelihood possibilities for the locals and creating a stable life and healthy tourism environment for all in general.