Interview • Portraits
Laos Mood Travel: Designing Tailor-Made Experiences Off the Beaten Path
Laurent Granier, Co-founder & General Manager at Laos Mood Travel, takes us behind the scenes of a different kind of travel experience.
Laurent Granier, Co-founder & General Manager at Laos Mood Travel
What inspired the creation of Laos Mood Travel, and how do you differentiate your agency from other operators in the region?
Laos Mood Travel was founded on the 10th of October 2010 by a group of French and Lao travel professionals who have wanted to express their creativity in liberty while focusing on Laos only.
We pride ourselves in tailoring 100% of our programmes. Any visitor to our website will not access any sample itinerary. We customise every project from scratch. Be it for a couple, a (multigenerational) family holiday, a group of friends or a business trip like a C-Level Meeting, corporate retreat, Team Building event or even a reward trip (Incentive).
We showcase a Laos that goes much beyond tourist interests and landmarks. We handpick the right Laos-based stakeholders to showcase the Lao lifestyle of today. We are the hyphen between with Lao, people of ethnic minority backgrounds and expats who call Laos home and our guests. This way, regional visitors can appreciate what it is like to live in the only one-party and landlocked country in SE Asia! A country where the notions of time and distance vary greatly from other parts of the world. A country of wholehearted, kind, humble and raw people.
We are a solid team of Vientiane/Laos-born folks and long-time residents ourselves. We live the country daily and we happily share our most updated insiders’ good tips.
What are the key trends in your industry, and how is your company adapting to them?
In the post Covid era, we have clearly noticed a strong desire to “go slow”, lower the pace of travel by staying at least 2 nights (or more) per locality visited, making meaningful trips, very immersive, very participative, varying moments and experiences. Mixing modest homestays / farm stays, glamping and indulgence at upscale boutique hotels.
We strive to grasp the profile of the inquiring party to assess what we feel is right to incorporate in our itinerary. We counsel, design and quote several options as needed. We do it with the heart.
What are your plans for the future?
We are perseverant. We have survived the Covid times. We are fully aware all good things take time. We will keep on highlighting the uniqueness of Laos. To anyone open-minded enough to consider some real novelty.
Laos is a country of pleasant surprises. It does not reveal itself easily. We are not on the headlines of the media, we are always under the radar of planners, but we abound of great “nuggets” to make our programs shine and appeal to intrepid travellers.
We have steadily elevated our level of exigence, our standards and it proves right with a high degree of satisfaction.
Our core target clientele is the western world, based in Europe, North America and key regional megalopolises that are fairly easy to access. Like Singapore and Kuala Lumpur notably.
Ideally, we wished we could host groups of students. We feel that Laos contrasts well with Singapore and it is important to challenge youngsters with environments that can open their eyes on other realities. We have this very hands-on approach that make learning fun, enjoyable and lasting. To all heads of schools out there, just sayin’.
As a new member of the French Chamber of Commerce in Singapore (FCCS), what opportunities are you most excited to explore?
I wish I managed to make Singapore-based prospects realize that Laos is worth the full attention of holiday planners.
It is a country that is basically half the size of France (or like Great Britain) and… 325 times bigger than Singapore with just <8M inhabitants!
Any channel offered by the FCCS that offers reasonable opportunities is most welcome. Be it digital or in presence whenever possible.
