Hongsa prepares for jumbo-sized festival
Excitement in the usually sleepy rural district of Hongsa is rising to a fever pitch as locals get into gear for this year’s Elephant Festival.
Expecting an influx of visitors both local and foreign, authorities in Xayaboury province are busy with preparations.
One of the most important tasks is to give advice to some 300 families as they prepare to offer home-stays, share their culinary skills and show off the best of local hospitality in the lead-up to and during the fourth Elephant Festival, to be held on February 20 and 21.
The annual festival is organised by the conservation organisation ElefantAsia, which works to protect the endangered Asian elephant and raise public awareness of their plight.
Director of Xayaboury Tourism Department, Mr Sangvien Sengkhannaly, said yesterday the first festival also took place in the district in 2007.
Hongsa district was the first of three in Xayaboury province to host the festival, which was the first of its kind in the province and the country as a whole.
“We now have 260 families ready for training in hospitality and home-stay. We expect that number to reach 300 as the district prepares to accommodate the large number of visitors expected to attend the festival,” he said.
More than 20 guesthouses will also benefit from training assistance as they aim to accommodate visitors.
Authorities will focus on preparing families with practical skills and cultural awareness issues related to home-stay, which is seen as the best way to share the culture and traditions of villagers and their livelihoods for the most authentic experience possible.
“This year, the festival will feature around 50 elephants and their handlers, including more than 10 elephants from Viengkeo village,” Mr Sangvien said.
“We expect to organise additional activities for visitors,” he added.
Mr Sangvien said it was not possible to organise this year’s event on February 14-15 as in past years because of potential clashes with other festivals such as the one at Vat Phou in Champassak province.
He believed staging the festival on February 20-21 would attract more local and overseas tourists.
With the festival set to return to Hongsa, local authorities and villagers urged ElefantAsia to hold the festival in Viengkeo village as its true birthplace.
Viengkeo was the first community in the province to be designated a cultural village as long ago as 1999, Mr Sangvien said.
It was this commitment to cultural and environmental preservation that led ElefantAsia to organise the first Elephant Festival here.
He said the department and other involved organisations would discuss coordinating annual festivals linked to particular districts in the province, with the Boat Racing Festival in Xayaboury district another example.
Incoming visitors can travel by boat from Luang Prabang or from Pakbeng in Oudomxay province, alighting in Thaxuang village before travelling to Hongsa by road.
Visitors can also arrive by road from Pakbeng district or Xayaboury district and the capital through Xiengnguen district in Luang Prabang province.
In 2007, some 10,000 local people and foreign visitors descended on Hongsa to witness the inaugural event.
Senior government officials and overseas guests, along with media from around the world, came to witness the festival and explore the cultural village of Viengkeo where the festival took place.
Hongsa is the largest district in the province, with Viengkeo village having the largest elephant population.
ElefantAsia hopes to raise awareness of the need to help preserve the dwindling elephant population of Laos in a way that is sustainable.
Part of this strategy is to promote ecotourism projects to the region and the world.
Xayaboury province has a total of 500 domesticated elephants and a further 200 to 300 in the wild.
Source: Vientiane Times
By Panyasith Thammavongsa
January 7, 2010
