Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam Strengthen Trilateral Tourism Cooperation
On August 26, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam held their first Tourism Ministers’ Meeting in Ho Chi Minh City, establishing a ministerial-level mechanism for trilateral tourism cooperation. The meeting adopted a Joint Action Plan for 2026-2028 to realize the “One Journey, Three Destinations” initiative, which aims to position the three countries as complementary destinations along the Mekong and strengthen cross-border tourism operability. In 2025, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam welcomed 31.3 million international visitors, including 3.2 million visitors from within the three-country bloc, generating USD 45.6 billion in tourism revenue. Under the action plan, the three countries will promote sustainable, community-based tourism. This builds on previous efforts from last year, including the Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam Food Festival and a Workshop on Cross-Border Travel Facilitation hosted in Cambodia.
To realize this vision, recommendations for 2026-2028 adopted by the tourism ministers of the three countries include improving transport connectivity among the three countries, increasing marketing initiatives, promotion and branding for joint travel excursions, building more public-private partnerships to enhance local tourism capacity, and involving more international partners. Elevating the meeting to a ministerial level provides Laos with a more formal framework to coordinate regional tourism development and could create opportunities for private-sector participation in transportation, hospitality, destination development, and related local economic activities.
