18 March 2003

Vientiane, Lao PDR: Tourists visiting Savannakhet province often make the same comment – the province has a sleepy charm, but there is not very much to do. While the provincial capital is a destination for some, the majority of tourists see only what they glimpse from the bus window on the way to or from Viet Nam or Siphandone.

Behind the scenes, however, Savannakhet’s Provincial Tourism Office (PTO) is hard at work on a project that will make the province a major draw for tourists within a few short years.

The PTO is developing treks that will allow tourists to visit and sleep in villages of various ethnic groups. They will learn about the culture and traditions of each group, about local plants and wildlife, and walk and canoe through some of the most spectacular scenery in the province.

The treks will be based within the province’s two National Biodiversity Conversation Areas (NBCAs), and are being developed around ecotourism principles. Advisors for the project are provided by SUNV -- a partnership between SNV (Netherlands Development Organization) and UN Volunteers in Lao PDR. SNV has considerable ecotourism experience, both regionally and globally.

While there is no standard definition of ecotourism, most people agree that it is small group travel to natural areas: travel that brings benefits for local people, contributes to nature conservation and cultural preservation and seeks to minimize negative impacts arising from visiting such areas.

In effect, ecotourism is ‘ethical’ tourism that minimizes the cultural and environmental impacts of tourism while still enabling villagers to benefit from it. In most conventional tourism, most of the money generated stays with urban and foreign-based tourism operators, who are not obliged to consider the long-term effects of their work.

In Savannakhet, the PTO is in the middle of laying the groundwork for trekking. Significant preparations are required. Those communities who want to be part of the project must be closely involved in every aspect of its development, in order that they can understand and truly benefit from tourism. The appropriate number of trekkers and frequency of the treks must be worked out. Cultural and environmental regulations for the tourists themselves must be developed.

So far four pilot treks have been carried out to test the realities behind all the hard work. The most recent pilot trek, conducted last month, took a group of tourists from various countries into the Phu Xang Hae NBCA.

Trekker Frankie from Belgium came back enthused. “I very much enjoyed participating in this pilot project, because of the pristineness and authenticity of the experience. Nothing was contrived,” he said.

The guides came in for special praise from many of the trekkers. Jennifer Lukomskyj, a Canadian, commented that “the light-hearted spirits of the guides and villagers are infectious. They were naturally outgoing and very friendly.” Their knowledge of the forest and the peoples of the area also received numerous compliments.

One reason that local knowledge is essential is to avoid breaking the taboos of each ethnic group. There are different taboos amongst each of the ethnic groups the trek visited.

“For example, in a Katang village, male and female visitors are not allowed to sleep beside each other in a villager’s house, even if they are married,” explains SUNV adviser Phutavong Ladounglerd. “And when sleeping, your head must point to the outside of the house, and your feet towards the inside. The villagers believe that to do otherwise would risk angering the spirits.”

Phutavong said the project team, which includes members from several parts of the provincial government, hopes that the treks they set up can set the standard for community-based ecotourism projects in other provinces.

“We want to show that villagers can benefit from ecotourism, as can wildlife, because ecotourism provides alternatives to hunting. Our dream is to help make Lao PDR internationally known as a destination for community based ecotourism,” said Phutavong.