Objectives:
1. Network building between guides and villagers
2. Awareness raising about what other possibilities there are for tourism
3. Exchange lessons how on to use tourism for nature conservation
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On the 1 st of May 33 guides and villagers gathered at the Green Discovery Office in Luang Namtha and departed for Muang Sing to visit the Akha Experience in Muang Sing. |
Number of Participants
33 for day 1
26 for day 2
No. of Guides: 16
No. of villagers: 10
National Protected Area Staff: 1
Provincial Tourism Office: 1
Green Discovery Staff: 5
9 Ethnic Groups Participating:
Lao, Kalom, Black Tai, Tai Puan, Khmu, Akha, Lanten, Sida, American
Total Cost: US$610
We visited the Akha Experience which is a Public Private Partnership between the German aid organization, GTZ and the tour operator, Exotissimo.
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We started at the base of That Xieng Tueng Sacred Mountain . |
The Akha Experience is an experiential trekking tour which takes the participants on a 3 day learning experience into the culture and daily life of the Akha in Muang Sing where they will have personal interactions with the villages they visit. The tour participants will have the opportunity to experience first hand from the Akha themselves the Akha culture and way of life. The villagers will share their life in the forest, their life in the fields and their life in the village with their guests.
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The Villagers met us at the waterfall and cooked truly delicious lunch for us. |
Vientiane Travel/Exotissimo and GTZ have combined their resources in a unique effort to provide the tourist and the village with a quality meaningful exchange; an experience where the tourist has personal contact with the Akha and where the Akha are able to fully participate in the benefits of tourism
The 8 participating villages have joined together into one association to manage the tour program and to ensure that benefits are distributed throughout the 8 villages. The guides are members of the village.
This differs from Green Discovery’s trekking programs where guides from the town take tourists into the villages in the Nam Ha Protected Area. In the Green Discovery model the villagers provide services as the Akha Experience villagers do and are treated as business partners. However, the Akha Experience is of a higher standard and has had significantly more investment and assistance with organization.
Part of the challenge of the Green Discovery model is building relationships between the town guides and the villagers. And as Green Discovery has 6 different trekking programs not every village knows what goes on the others. The study tour’s main objective was to build relationships between guides and villagers, to increase awareness of the economic potential of tourism as well as to create linkages among villages.
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Picnic Lunch |
1. How to make a good trail.
2. Appoint a village tourism manager who receives a monthly salary
3. A villager music group is another way to make income for the villagers
4. Warm hospitality and dress in ethnic clothes.
5. A well designed comfortable village lodge.
6. The tour operator invests in the equipment and infrastructure and then hands over responsibility and ownership to the villagers.
7. Clear division of roles and responsibilities among the villagers
8. How to make delicious food in the forest
9. How to use tourism for forest conservation
10. Build a fence around the village lodge to keep the livestock out.
11. Use solar power for electricity and hot water.
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The next day we left our Akha hosts in Ban Lao Khao. |
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At night the villagers got their instruments out and made wonderful music for us. |
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They sang and danced for us too! |
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Then we wrote down all that we learned, made a few plans, thanked our hosts and went home. |
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