Traffic lights send alarm bells ringing
Bangkok Post dd. 3 januari 2006
It was inevitable that with every sale of a motorcycle and car the day would dawn when Vientiane would introduce traffic lights and its residents would complain in letters to the editor that their beloved capital was on a slippery downhill path to gridlock.
Alarm bells are already ringing as the city prepares to celebrate the New Year. There are 26 traffic lights in Vientiane and the suggestion it needs 27 is now at the heart of a hot debate. Will another set on Lang Xang Avenue in the heart of the city ease the 200-metre-long traffic jam on the city’s most prestigious road?
One solution focuses on synchronising the existing lights so that cars in the “rush hour” just sail through in a huge convoy leaving pedestrians wondering how long it will take to cross the road to the famous “morning market”.
“Why, if this situation continues much longer,” an official told the Vientiane Times, “we might have to follow Bangkok and Hanoi and introduce electric trains.”
Lao PDR celebrated its 30th anniversary earlier in the month. Reminders of that celebration are still visible as the national flag and famous sickle and hammer emblem flutter side by side in the winter breezes atop of houses, shops and government buildings.
If we need a reminder of how far this small landlocked country, often dubbed one of the poorest in the world, has travelled down the path of economic development, count the cars and motorcycles. According to the Ministry of Communications there were 153,000 motorbikes and 9,000 cars back in 2000. Five years later there are more than 365,500 motorcycles and 11,400 cars plying the streets of the capital. But is a 200-metre-long traffic jam 5-6pm Monday to Friday on the city’s main street a harbinger of worse to come?
Apparently so for the police officers and health workers who view the annual accident statistics with the same keen interest that tourism officials view the 27 percent increase in tourists over the same period. However, the arrival of traffic lights and jams doesn’t appear to be turning tourists away.
During the first nine months of 2005, the country welcomed 793,603 visitors, and the Lao National Tourism Administration is confident that the historic one million landmark will be reached by New Year. Officials forecast 2006 will bring 1.2 million visitors mainly due to improvements to infrastructure and the growing popularity of Luang Prabang, a Unesco World Heritage destination.
Underscoring the confidence that tourism will spur economic growth, the LNTA will join the Pacific Asia Travel Association, putting it on par with government members from the Pacific region that are the main paymasters of the association.
Government membership in Pata doesn’t come cheap. Estimated at around US,000-30 000 a year depending on tourist arrival levels, membership gives the tourism ministries or national tourist offices considerable clout to steer association policy at a powerful board level. That in itself should signal a shift in how the Lao PDR views its future role in regional tourism and lift its marketing profile worldwide.
In March 2006, tourism stakeholders and investors representing the Mekong River region will meet for a summit in Luang Prabang. The March 28-30 event hosted by the Lao National Tourism Administration and backed by regional travel organisations will attract approximately 150 executives, many of whom own companies that invest in Laos and neighbouring countries.
The Mekong Tourism Investment Summit has the financial backing of Bangkok Airways, Amadeus Asia Pacific, Best Western Asia Pacific and Diethelm Travel Asia, while leading investment related organisations such as the Asia Development Bank and the sustainable tourism specialists SNV and Pata have thrown their support behind the summit.
Investment opportunities related to tourism in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, China (Yunnan and Guangxi provinces) and Burma will be spotlighted with government representatives identifying specific sites and projects as well as the investment conditions. Details of the event and registration details can be viewed at the web site www.mekonginvestmentsummit.com.
Against the backdrop of change, improved infrastructure and investment opportunities, Vientiane ambles on at a leisurely pace. If the country is about to clock its millionth tourist in 2005 any day now, it’s a fact that has not yet registered or made much impact on the outlook shared by the city’s hotels and travel related enterprises.
“We are not on the Christmas or New Year countdown destination list,” Lao Plaza Hotel’s general manager Nobuyuki Fukuda tells me. “It is always quiet in the city this time of year. People just don’t perceive Vientiane as a city where you countdown a spectacular New Year celebration.”
I suppose he has a point and that is underscored by the advertisements in the local newspapers that offer a New Year countdown dinner and drinks for a paltry US per person. Downscale a category and the countdown celebration goes for as little as US to US per person.
“Business picks up once the New Year celebrations are over,” Mr Fukuda adds.
"I reckon we can improve yield and occupancy by another five to six percent in 2006.
“But what this city needs is more airline seats. It’s too much of a burden on the national airline to think it can serve both tourism and business travel to every destination in Laos.”
Vientiane might just be the ticket for travellers who want to hear themselves countdown without having to compete with a million of other revellers screeching out of tune the passing of Father Time.
At around US a night for a room plus the full party works including a silly hat and paper whistle for less than US, the Lao capital could be a bargain countdown destination for jaded Asia-Pacific travellers. It also comes without the typical hotel hassles over deposits, compulsory buffet dinner with cheap champagne, minimum stay penalties and the dreadful feeling that you have been ripped off just one minute into the New Year.
I was mulling over these countdown bargains in the popular Vientiane restaurant-cum-bar Kop Chai Deu that serves up half descent Lao, Thai, Indian dishes and the world’s worst pizza. But you cannot beat the Beer Lao on tap cold and cheap. Two large glasses of ale and an Indian curry will set you back just US. Tell me where that happens south of the border?
Located on a street corner opposite the Lane Xang Hotel a mean winter breeze swirls through its garden packing some mean chills from China’s far northern climes. It certainly feels like New Year wrapped up in a wool jumper.
Would I countdown 2006 on a bar stool in Vientiane? Probably not, but I wouldn’t count on this town maintaining its sleepy character much longer either. If Vientiane’s laid-back lifestyle is what keeps us going back then we are running out of time. The city had its first motor show last week, cranking out hundreds of pick-up trucks and more motorcycles for first-time drivers.
As Mr Fukuda explains: “It would take just one international chain to establish a foothold here to change everything.”
What a depressing thought for those travellers who view Vientiane, with or without its 26 traffic lights, as a refuge from fast paced money making destinations that are the very foundation of Asia’s all-consuming tourism business.