With Visit Laos Year 2018 fast approaching, the organising committee is preparing to advertise the countrywide event which will be officially launched next month during the annual That Luang Festival in Vientiane, the biggest festival in the country.
Director General of the Tourism Marketing Department under the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr Soun Manivong, told Vientiane Times that the ministry will hold a press conference tomorrow (October 12), after which the publicity campaign will kick into gear.
The organising committee will discuss the installation of advertisements and their location in various parts of the country.
The committee has completed the details of the signs and is only waiting to hang them up along main roads and other areas to attract the attention of locals and foreign visitors, Mr Soun said.
The main activities during Visit Laos Year 2018 will be the opening ceremony and the That Luang Festival, as well as a tourism exhibition, traditional performances and the sale and exhibition of handicrafts throughout the provinces.
Another highlight will be the Elephant Festival which will take place in February in Xayaboury district, Xayaboury province.

In the same month, Champassak province will celebrate the annual Vat Phou Temple festival with activities to delight visitors to the World Heritage Site.
Authorities in many provinces have improved tourist attractions, hotels, guesthouses and services in anticipation of a surge in visitor numbers.
According to a ministry official in charge of the project, the government has approved almost 23 billion kip in support of Visit Laos Year 2018.
This amount will only go towards advertising, however, and authorities in each province should be prepared to fund their own special activities.
In 2016, just over 4.23 million foreign visitors came to Laos – a drop of 10 percent compared to 2015, according to the Tourism Development Department of the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism.
Collectively, visitors from the other nine Asean member countries dropped by about 14 percent to just over 3 million people. Tourists from the Asia-Pacific region dropped by 11 percent to just over 3.9 million people, and visitors from the Americas dropped by 3 percent to 86,211 people.
Visitors from Thailand and Vietnam, the main sources of foreign visitors to Laos, dropped significantly by more than 400,000 and 100,000 people respectively.

By Vientiane Times Reporters (Latest Update October 11, 2017)