After 10 traditional Swallow-tailed Boat Racing Festivals on New Year's Day, Muong Lay Ward (formerly Muong Lay Town) is continuing to elevate the local tourism brand with the 2025-2026 Floodwater Tourism Festival on the Da River.
This year the festival is expanded in scale, content and form, promising to bring visitors diverse experiences, combining river culture, sports and community tourism.
Coming to the festival, visitors will participate in a series of attractive activities such as At-the- end boat racing, kayaking, lake tourism, and exploring the typical cultural space of the Thai, H'Mong, and Kho Mu ethnic groups.
According to Mr. Nguyen Dat Long - Chairman of Muong Lay Ward People's Committee, organizing flood season tourism activities aims to maximize the potential and advantages of tourism, services and trade of the ward.
We aim to focus on comprehensive development in terms of scope, scale, and nature to create a boost to make tourism a major economic sector, creating momentum for growth and shifting the economic structure on the basis of effectively exploiting the potential and advantages..., said Mr. Nguyen Dat Long.
This is also an opportunity for Muong Lay to strengthen regional linkages, especially the waterway system connecting with Quynh Nhai commune (Son La) and Nam Hang, Le Loi, Nam Ma communes (Lai Chau), forming a chain of inter-provincial river and road tourism linkages.
Muong Lay ward owns diverse tourism resources, the cradle of the White Thai people (accounting for 44.5% of the population). The hilly terrain surrounding Son La Hydropower Reservoir creates a majestic landscape, very favorable for developing river tourism, trekking, paragliding and cave exploration.
Regarding heritage, Muong Lay owns 3 provincial-level relics (Lai Chau Prison Historical Site, Pu Vap Historical Site, Ban Bac Cave Scenic Scenic Landscape Site) and 3 national intangible cultural heritages (Then Kin Pang Festival of the White Thai people, Phai Thai Art, Traditional knowledge of the Cinnamon and Banh Doan making craft, Banh Chi Ap of the White Thai people).
In April 2025, the Vietnam Record Organization also set a record for "Muong Lay Ward with the highest density of traditional stilt houses of the White Thai ethnic group in Vietnam", contributing to honoring cultural values and opening up opportunities to promote community tourism.
Within the framework of the flood season tourism event on the Da River, Muong Lay Ward also organized the 1st Sports Festival, gathering 8 athletes participating in 15 competitions (42 events), such as: Football, tug of war, boat racing, fieldwork, stick pushing, throwing, folk dance sports...
With systematic investment, effective exploitation of potential and experience after 10 times of organization, Muong Lay is gradually building the image of a tourist highlight of Dien Bien province, associated with cultural preservation.
