Phim Hay 360s

The World Heritage town of Luang Prabang last Sunday celebrated its award by the UK 's leading travel magazine, Wanderlust, of the ‘Top City Gold Award', for the third successive year.

The celebrations began with food offerings to monks, followed by processions carrying national flags and banners, and an elephant parade.



The parade began at the provincial administration office and slowly travelled along Sisavangvong Road to Vat Xieng Thong, with local and foreign visitors joining in the celebrations.

Speaking before the parade, Governor of Luang Prabang province Bounheuang Douangphachan said the people of Luang Prabang were very proud to receive the international accolade.

“The award is not easy to win and we were competing with many well-known cities around the world,” he said.



Luang Prabang authorities have treated tourism as a priority in achieving socio-economic development and the industry has grown rapidly. The province has developed tourism services for cultural, natural and historical attractions to bring economic benefits to local people, he said.

The town was voted into the magazine's top 10 cities, from a list of 615, before the decision was made to give it the gold award. A poll of the magazine's readers who had visited the city found a satisfaction rating of more than 97 percent.

Luang Prabang won the award because it is an outstanding example of the fusion of traditional architecture and Lao urban structures with those built by Europeans in the 19th and 20th centuries. The 1,200-year-old historic town is considered to be the cultural and religious capital of Laos .

“The most important aspect of the town is the charm and hospitality of its people, a characteristic that has been handed down over the centuries. Now it has been revealed to the world,” Mr Bounheuang said.

He said people of all ethnicities should be proud of their artistic culture and architecture, and urged them to preserve and develop the town in a sustainable way.



In 1995 UNESCO added the town to its list of World Heritage Sites. It became the first such site in Laos , ensuring the preservation of its mixture of traditional Lao and French architecture. Since then its unique character has helped make it one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country.

Also attending the celebrations were Minister to the Prime Minister's Office and President of the Lao National Tourism Administration Somphong Mongkhonvilay, Deputy Governor Dr Khampheng Saysompheng, and the Deputy Minister of Information and Culture Bouangeun Saphouvong.

By MK. Vongsam-ang
Vientianetimes

Photo: Xiengthong temple, Luang prabang

(KPL) The first world heritage town of the Lao PDR, Luang Prabang, has been voted the most popular town of the world.

The votes were released in England’s Wanderlust Magazine.

According to Luang Prabang Tourist Office, the world heritage town of Luang Prabang has been selected among 615 tourist towns world-wide. The town has won the honour for three consecutive years since 2006 followed by Spain and Italy.

Amid the rising number of tourist arrivals, Lao people are proud of the ranking for the country’s jewel - Luang Prabang.

Mr Khamtanh Somphanvilay, Deputy Head of Luang Prabang Tourism Office, said he believed that the selection would augment this year’s number of tourist arrivals at least to 300,000, which will bring about US$ 100 million.

He added that Laos could not vote for itself and won such an honour for Luang Prabang. But it was the result of a unanimous voting by a number of tourists and tourism companies around the world through England’s Wanderlust Magazine.

Last year, the ancient town in northern Laos was closely kept an eye on by the competent UN agency for local activities of urban development, which could cause damage to efforts of preservation of the value of the ancient culture and unique architecture of Luang Prabang. In this respect, we have cooperated with local authorities and central levels to monitor and inspect activities occurring in the town, but we believed that all things must proceed within the scope enforced regulations and laws, explained Mr Khamtanh.

Luang Prabang was proclaimed by UNESCO as the first world heritage town in Laos in 1995. Since then, this dormant ancient town has been waken up by an influx of tourists from all corners of the world.

In parallel with the invasion of tourists the town also sees floods of external investment. All these could put the heritage town at risk of damaging its ancestor’s traditional way of life and value, and ancient architectural heritage if no measure is taken to control development activities to a proper extent.

Source: kpl

Edinburgh has been voted the 10th best of 613 world cities in a survey conducted by a UK travel magazine.

The Scottish capital is the first UK city ever to feature in the annual top 10 decided by 3,000 readers of Wanderlust Magazine.

Luang Prabang in Laos was voted the best in the world while Glasgow came 34th - three places behind London.

Rio de Janeiro's carnival in Brazil was voted the world's best festival with the Edinburgh Festival ranked third.

The results of the reader survey were announced at the Destination Travel Show at Olympia in London

WORLD'S 'TOP 10 CITIES'
1. Luang Prabang, Laos
2. Santiago de Compostela, Spain
3. Venice
4. San Francisco
5. Sydney
6. Hong Kong
7. Lhasa, Tibet
8. Dubrovnik, Croatia
9. Cusco, Peru
10. Edinburgh

Lyn Hughes, editor-in-chief of Wanderlust magazine said Edinburgh's ranking "proves that we Brits don't have to travel far to experience an exciting, world class city that's rich in history and offers the very best in culture, food, architecture and entertainment."

The leading travel magazine has been running the annual poll since 2001.

More info: http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Edinburgh-voted-top--destination.3734497.jp

Source: BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7220391.stm