The pandemic was tough on Mekong tourism, and the river cruise business took the brunt of COVID’s damage. For two years, cruise operations like Laos PDR’s Mekong River Cruises lay dormant: still bleeding money to maintain their boats, even as they wound down operations to the bare minimum.
Now that tourism has reopened throughout the Mekong Subregion, how have they bounced back? Are there still significant challenges ahead for the Mekong’s cruise ships? We checked with Lukas von Schagen, Chief Operations Officer for Mekong River Cruises, who shared his unique perspective on travel in the upper Mekong and the changes he’s seeing on the currents.
How has the cruise business on the Mekong changed since travel reopened last year?
Now, we obviously we have to be very particular about COVID and other infectious diseases. So we put a lot of focus on hygiene now: we have certification for LaoSafe, which is a government certificate for hygiene and cross-contamination. This is probably the biggest change in our program. The itinerary did not really change over the course of the pandemic, but hygiene is something that we have a very high focus now, to ensure a very clean procedure on our boats.
Do you feel like people have come back with a vengeance, or are they just trickling in?
We are a Lao-German joint venture; we are working together with a big tour operator in Berlin, Germany. They have a customer base from Europe, and they send their customers to us. Right now, European customers are looking at travel dates for early next year – so for January, February, March, we already have a lot of bookings coming in.
In the beginning, for our first cruises last September, October, it was a little bit more difficult to fill those cruises, because our customers are definitely on the safe side, and want to be safe when coming here. Now, we definitely have a couple of cruises in this peak season where we reached the maximum guest numbers per boat.
Everybody agrees the pandemic was terrible for the travel business in the Mekong. How were you able to survive? What measures did you take to make sure that you would still be around when travel reopened in Laos?
We took a very close look at all of our expenses, what we needed to pay to keep our boats afloat and also our team. We unfortunately needed to make some hard decisions, letting go of a lot of staff. But a cruise operation still has a tremendous amount of costs just to keep the boat in a safe state! It was just our luck that we are a Lao-German joint venture. So we got support from our German partners, who were still able to sell cruises in other parts of the world.
Now that travel has reopened, what are your guys plans for the short to medium term? Are you planning to reopen any new destinations or experiences for your guests?
We are already offering these cruises for over 12 years, and so we have tried many different things on the Mekong River in Laos. In the end, we came up with the products that we are offering right now.
For next season, we have a couple of bookings coming in, as our customers also like to book well in advance and we definitely hope to have a full season with both of our boats for next year. But we’re in a state of observation right now: as you might know, there is a second Mekong Dam being built in Laos not far north from Luang Prabang. We will have to see what effects this has, in terms of our itineraries. We will need to see if we can still offer a river cruise, or if it will be like a lake-to-lake cruise, which will definitely take away from the experience.
Also, there are some competitors who are currently building new river vessels. We are thinking of building our own new boat, after our old boat has has served for long enough. We’re just watching, to see how the all these changes will affect us in the future.
I imagine there’s still a lot of competition in your particular travel niche. What is it that you feel that you offer that that is different from what your competitors are offering on your cruises?
We already are fairly uniquely positioned, because we are offering this cruise in the Upper Mekong River in Laos, a very pristine area. Our boats are boutique boats. And we offer these trips to places where not many tourists go. That’s what we offer: a safe and comfortable journey to places that are really away from the beaten track, and where where even our older customers can really see the nature, the true people of Laos and still have the comfort of our three and four-star boutique vessel.
Could you paint a picture for me about the kind of customers that that you serve on a regular basis? So I’m assuming they’re mostly German, EU citizens?
We have a big head office in Berlin, and that’s where most of our marketing is done. They have also contacts with other travel agencies in Europe, which means we get some French customers, We are a big charterer of Switzerland travelers. But most of it definitely is in the German speaking market. German, Austrian, Swiss.
Here in Luang Prabang, I take care of all the requests coming from Australia and New Zealand. All these are individual tourists who stumble across our website, want to do a Mekong cruise and then contact me.
Our flagship product is the 11-day cruise; it’s a long time on the river, and Laos is already a very laid back country. So you have to bring a lot of time and be able to relax. You know, this is our our strongest unique selling proposition: to really take the time and relax and leave all the stress behind. So what we get mostly is 50 years of age up from our customer target markets, the people who definitely look for these kind of cruises and they’re very excited to come here.
Does the Mekong cruise season coincide with winter in in Europe?
It does, yeah. The peak season, definitely around December and January, coincides. We of course, are bound to the water levels here. Down towards Vientiane, the Mekong River gets very shallow in the dry season. That’s when we have to stop our operation until April. After Lao New Year in May and June, the country is normally devoid of any tourists, who then come back later for high season in September, October, November.
Speaking of the water level on the Mekong: has climate change had an impact on the cruise business in general? Have you noticed any significant differences in terms of how the climate has affected your business?
Talking with our experienced captains, they can definitely see a change. They agree that that it gets crazier and crazier, the water levels. It’s not as reliable as it used to be before.
Ten to 20 years ago, the Mekong also had a difference of 16 meters between dry season and wet season. it’s just not as reliable anymore. I cannot really say if there is an effect from the dams, but it definitely feels like it. I am certain that the engineers of the dams will tell everyone that there will be no environmental effects. But our experience recently in the last four years is that it just gets harder and harder to plan ahead, as as these weather phenomena just get more unreliable.
Your boats, the Mekong Sun and the Mekong Pearl, they look really gorgeous. In your own words, can you take us on a tour of each of the different boats, and tell us what makes them special?
The Mekong Sun was the first boutique cabin boat ever built on the Upper Mekong River in Laos. It is a catamaran which was basically welded together on a sandbank. It has 14 cabins on two decks, so most of the cabins are on the lower deck. There are two more cabins on the upper deck, as well as a sun deck and the restaurant. I would say on the Mekong Sun, you can spend most of your time on the sun deck outside. And yeah, it’s a really boutique style boat. You can’t find that anywhere else in the world.
The Mekong Pearl was built in 2017-18. And it had a little bit more planning involved. It’s therefore a little bit more deep than the Mekong Sun. It’s a little bit bigger. It has one cabin more. So it offers space for up to 29 people. And it also has two decks with with a third floor, only for a tiny sundeck. We have a little spa on Mekong Pearl.
The speciality on our boats is that each cabin comes with a French balcony. Nobody can look into your cabin. And you have direct river views. So when you don’t want to see anyone, you could be in the cabin. Open the big window and just look out on the Mekong river and the jungle beyond it.