Three homestays, Mekong Riverside, Anna and Liberty Place, that reporters recently visited in Laos turned out to be under the management of Vietnamese.

The owner of Mekong Riverside has been living in Laos for many years. The young man born in 1993 who is the owner of Liberty Place is a newcomer.

After several years of working for a foreign invested company in Hanoi, he decided to come to Laos, and leased Liberty Place, which then was incurring a loss, and has been managing the homestay since then. Liberty Place is now one of the favorite destinations in Luang Prabang with 9.1 score according to Booking.com.

According to the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, more than 4.1 million foreign travelers came to Laos in 2018, an increase of 8.2 percent compared with 2017. The country hopes it can attract 6.2 million travelers by 2020 with revenue of $993 million.

Vietnamese want to grab opportunities they see in the Laos tourism market which only has 670 hotels and 2,432 guest houses.

Vietnamese want to grab opportunities they see in the Laos tourism market which only has 670 hotels and 2,432 guest houses.

Some Vietnamese real estate developers arrived in Laos early. Hoang Anh Gia Lai and Muong Thanh took strong steps to penetrate the hotel sector of the country. Two years after opening Crowne Plaza, a first five-star hotel in Laos, BIM Land plans to set up more hotel rooms and serviced apartments in Vientiane.

Not only the tourism sector, but agriculture, mining, hydropower, trade, service and food attract Vietnamese. Dao Heuang of Le Thi Luong has become the most outstanding private business in Laos.

The businesswoman has invested in many fields, including coffee, green tea cultivation and processing, duty-free shop, hotels, consumer goods, purified water, bottled tea and dried fruits. Zap pho (Vietnamese traditional food), and Dong Xanh and Hoang Kim restaurants owned by Vietnamese have also been thriving.

Pham Thiet Hoa, director of the HCMC Trade and Investment Promotion Center (ITPC), commented that the business environment in Laos has similarities with Myanmar where the demand for goods and services has risen strongly.

According to the Asia Pacific Department of the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnamese goods in Laos account for a small market share compared with Thailand's.

Thailand holds 90 percent of the petroleum market share in Laos, while the figure is just 7-8 percent for Vietnam. And Thailand has 66 percent of the cement and clinker market in Laos, while Vietnam has 28-29 percent.

Mai Lan 

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