When responses are separated by package versus independent tourists, the independent tourists rank Lao PDR much higher on "rural" characteristics and only those characteristics, than do the package tourists. The only criteria for which the ranking changes substantially are for the attraction criteria of ethnic diversity, culture, mountains/waterfalls, and rural community t To some extent, all four of these reflect travel to the rural areas. This is a similar result to separating the responses into tourists from Europe, North America, Australia New Zealand, and Japan versus tourists from the GMs. These differences may reflect differences in travel patterns. Most GMS tourists to Lao PDR, of which Thais dominate, travel on package tours coming with a group of friends or co workers for a long weekend to Vientiane, Luang Prabang, or both. Most tourists Benchmarking Lao PDR of European or Japanese origin travel independently, stay for much longer periods, and tend to get out in the country. So the package and GMS tourists much lower ranking for rural characteristics in Lao PDR may be attributed to lack of exposure given their preferred travel patterns.