"Annual tourist arrivals have tripled in 10 years, from half a million in 1998 to 1.7 million in 2008, according to numbers from Laos' tourism authority. Tourism now brings in $US275 million ($A305.35 million) in annual revenue, up from $US80 million ($A88.83 million) in 1998, making it Laos' second biggest money-maker after mining.
"
http://samakomlao.blogspot.com/2010/03/laos-threatened-by-sex-and-drugs.html

That's in excess of over US$550,000,000 p.a.

Who pockets all the money?

All people working at the airport, car rental place, independent taxi/tuk tuk transportation service providers, hotels, restaurants, sandwich shops, coffee shops, food markets and 'natural' tourist sites.   These are formulated estimates based on the people came to Laos at checkpoints, the length of their stay and their expected destination and 'activities'.

Forever Young wrote on 21^st Aug, 2011 at 6:25pm:

All people working at the airport, car rental place, independent taxi/tuk tuk transportation service providers, hotels, restaurants, sandwich shops, coffee shops, food markets and 'natural' tourist sites.

All US$550,000,000 worth?
I don't think so!
The hard working people you mentioned only make a fraction of that.

Who pockets all the money?


Forever Young wrote on 21^st Aug, 2011 at 6:25pm:

These are formulated estimates based on the people came to Laos at checkpoints, the length of their stay and their expected destination and 'activities'.

Those 'activities' which you allude to are 'illegal'. I don't think anyone's taking tallies. How can that be estimated?

All US$550,000,000 worth?
I don't think so!
The hard working people you mentioned only make a fraction of that.

Who pockets all the money?


Of course individual's take home pay depends on the level of the organization or business that the individual is at.  The owner of the business will take home a bigger piece of a pie as expected (maybe 10-100 folds than the average indivual within the business in Laos). 

Also think about Vientiane and Vientiane has 800,000.  Most likely there are at least 250,000 of those that are able to work.  Since tourism is one of the main revenues for the city and let's estimate 100,000 of 250,000 are the primary, secondary and terrtiary supporters for  these tourists that are are coming into the city.  Do the math = 550,000,000/100,000 = $5500/individual/year.  $5500/year is a relatively small income comparing to other countries like Australia, USA and so on.... but good enough for the locals for the time being.   
Again to answer your question, Everyone pockets the money!  Some do make more than others ;).

Your arguments:
Those 'activities' which you allude to are 'illegal'. I don't think anyone's taking tallies. How can that be estimated?

'Activities' refer to 'everything' that the tourists take part in when they are in Laos and I am 100% sure that they do not want to add 'illegal' variable into the equation.

Actually it is not that complex to get estimates on an tourist 'activities' in Laos or in any countries for that matters.  At a checkpoint, tourists are checked in with a date stamp on a passport and with other paperworks to go along with and date stamp again to go out of the country.  They should know closely the number of tourists from the paperwork and know the length of their stay from the dated stamp.  From their plug variables (taxi, hotel, food, site fee costs... and so on) into the formula and then that should give good estimates on what the tourists spend in Laos.   

A rule of thumb is that each tourist injects between $100 and $200 into the country's economy through their spending (accommodation, foo, transport, etc.)

hello,

here some data :
http://www.tourismlaos.org/userfiles/2009%20Statistical%20Report%20on%20Tourism%20in%20English%20version.pdf

Laosnow:

According the site provided by Somvang, a tourist spends approximately ~$130/per visit in Laos.

Where is all the money, then?

Everyone in Laos that provided products and services benefited from these tourists. Relatively speaking, $550 million is not much.

$130 is not much.
;)


Forever Young wrote on 24^th Aug, 2011 at 1:39am:

Laosnow: According the site provided by Somvang, a tourist spends approximately ~$130/per visit in Laos.

$550 Million, but I it's not equally distributed. Some business make way way more and some make less.
;)



PEACE wrote on 14^th Sep, 2011 at 9:01am:

Everyone in Laos that provided products and services benefited from these tourists. Relatively speaking, $550 million is not much.

True and depends on what the tourists had done while in Laos.