VIENTIANE, 28 July 2015: Lao Association of Travel Agents has called for the relevant government authorities to strictly enforce the law to rid the country of illegal travel companies and unregistered tour guides.
The association argues that the illegal travel firms do not make a financial contribution to the country in taxes.
Registered travel firms have to factor tax in their costing, while companies that avoid registration evade tax giving them a price advantage. There are also companies that fudge their reporting declaring a smaller total of tourists handled to avoid payments.
Vientiane Times quoted the association’s vice president, Saleum Khamphengvong, saying that there were still many loopholes in the law that allowed some companies to derive financial benefits from undeclared numbers of foreign customers.
“At the borders, some travel companies will inform the tourism authorities that they are bringing in 150 tourists. (For example) the exact number of visitors was 250, which means that 100 tourists entered Laos for free,” he said.
He explained that, when tourists enter the country for free, it means that the service providers have charged them, but failed to handover the money to the government.
Management of the tourism sector should come under close control of the Tourism Police Office in order to ensure these problems do not occur, he noted.
“Strict inspection of approved travel companies should be done to ensure they are still trading,” he added.
Currently there are more than 300 travel companies across the country with more than 100 of them in Vientiane, according to ministry data.