Established in 1997, the Lao National Tourism Administration (LNTA) is currently a service agency attached to the Prime Minister's Office, but there are plans for it to become a statutory agency in its own right. The LNTA comprises Departments of General Administration, Planning and Co-operation, Tourism and Hotel Management and Tourism Marketing and Promotion; the Department of Tourism and Hotel Management incorporates a Tourism and Hospitality Training Centre (see Training). The LNTA also manages Vientiane's National Ethnic Culture Park and Patuxai Monument and co-publishes Visiting Muong Lao Magazine and the Lao National Tourism Administration Guide.

The LNTA is responsible for preparing draft laws, regulations and rules on the management of tourism and tourism industry; for preparing guidelines and strategies and working out long- and short-term plans on the development of tourism and the tourism industry throughout the country; for promoting the arts, culture and traditions of Laos as a means of attracting foreign visitors; for surveying and planning for the preservation, restoration and renovation or development of tourist sites, including cultural and natural tourism; for providing job opportunities and enabling ethnic people to increase their incomes; for promoting tourism and the tourist industry as a means of improving people's lives and promoting integrated local production; for guiding and supervising the activities of business units in tourism and the tourism industry to ensure that their activities are not detrimental to existing laws, regulations and measures; for implementing the open-door policy on international economic and cultural co-operation within the tourist industry; and for enhancing friendly co-operation with other nations which have tourist policies corresponding to those of Laos.