At long last, Laos has fully reopened its borders on Monday 9 May,
allowing fully vaccinated travellers to enter the country without any
testing requirements.
All international checkpoints, including air, land and water, will be
open for entry and exit by Lao citizens, foreign residents, tourists,
and other types of visitors, announced the Prime Minister’s Office over
the weekend.
The region's travel season is making a comeback as more people head overseas for vacations.
Laos is among the last countries in Southeast Asia to fully reopen
its international borders. While other ASEAN nations such as Cambodia,
Thailand and Vietnam had began progressing unlocking their borders since
early 2022 to foreign visitors, Laos has not unveiled any official
opening moves until this month.
Vietntiane-based inbound tour operator Laurent Granier, who is
co-founder and general manager of Laos Mood Travel, shares his thoughts
on the country's reopening.
What have you been hearing from overseas travel agents and planners all these while? Have you been getting more queries lately?
Some of our closest agents have always shown some interest and care.
We have rescheduled trips for plans that date back to over two years
ago.
However, I am confident business will pick up nicely and steadily. It
will not skyrocket obviously, but we already hear returns of airline
frequencies and capacities, starting with Vientiane. We hope Luang
Prabang follows next.
We still do not have direct air access. We hope announcements will be
done soonest so at least the next high season is secured as early as
possible.
In the summer, we will get a few FITs who will be flexible, so
Vientiane as point of entry/exit will be fine. We bet a few travellers
will still combine with Cambodia, as overland crossing is now possible.
But I expect a good deal of our time will be spent on scheduling and
explaining what we are up to. Fortunately, almost all restrictions are
lifted, so it is easy to get the point.
What has Laos Mood Travel been up to in gearing up for reopening? What will be your biggest update for partners?
Our remaining staff and business partners are super excited. We look
forward to securing a few bookings, improving our cash flow and building
back a solid team when volumes pick up.
We have been working on unique themed itineraries for vegans, single
parent families, glamping, etc. We are more ready than ever to tackle
special requests and add value through our thick network of local
stakeholders who will make the trips memorable.
We
will keep advocating for Laos-only programmes to avoid uncertainty of
combined tours. We will push for tours that stay longer at each place
visited, hopping less often and going deeper into the destination. We
will move toward "slow tourism" because it makes sense experience-wise,
but also to avoid lengthy journeys overland by vehicle or boat due to
increasing fuel cost.
Do you reckon Laos' slow tourism positioning will shine more than ever as borders reopen?
Yes, definitely. For instance, there is still plenty to do to
pleasantly surprise visitors to Vientiane. But we will have to be good
at arguing in favour of slow tourism because we have already start
receiving inquiries that are based on old fashioned ways of thinking
Laos.
Plus, Laos now has a high-speed train, so that opens up new opportunities.
More
is not always the best in travel. We planners sense that travellers do
not realise that Laos stretches 2,000 kilometres from north to south. It
is not wise to want to "do it all" in a week's time.
Each country deserves the full attention of planners and travellers alike.