Wanderlust: Expat Life & Style in Thailand June / July 2017: The Business Issue | Page 8

Business
Travel Entrepreneurs in Thailand
From travel booking, to sightsee-
ing and sampling a country’s cuisine,
each of these Thailand-based trav-
el businesses have been established
by expats who believe the future of
tourism will be, more than anything
else, about targeting and tailoring.
VERY LOCAL TRIP
When Maxime Besnier founded the
boutique travel company Very Local
Trip, he realized that a one-size-fits-all
approach wouldn’t suit the growing
number of tourists looking for tailored
travel. Mostly, though, the French ex-
pat formed his business based on the
type of traveling he would enjoy.
“I don’t have a background in tour-
ism,” Besnier says. “But I tried to create
something that for me makes sense. I
would like to travel a city this way …
to feel like a local.”
Very Local Trip connects small
groups or solo explorers with a local
resident who acts as a tour guide, but
in a friendlier way than usual. The per-
son in charge of the group can’t be just
anyone; Besnier is extremely particu-
lar about who is selected. “The perfect
local friends,” he says, “are those who
are very knowledgeable and who can
adapt trips. They need to have a lot of
empathy to feel what clients want.”
The staff adhere to certain linguis-
tic stipulations, to drive home how
different these experiences are from
the mass market norm. The words
“guide” and “tour,” which are associ-
ated with impersonal tourism, are
banned. Instead, Besnier and his
team use “local friend” and “trip.”
Though these carefully chosen words
may seem fussy, it is this precise lan-
guage that articulates the compa-
ny’s philosophy and emphasizes Very
Local Trip’s promise of authenticity.
The company’s mission is to create
high-quality, intimate experiences,
which means that customers’ bud-
gets lean more high-end than shoe-
string. With Very Local Trip, value lies
not in luxury hotels or extravagant
meals, however. What they pay for
are customized, memorable and gen-
uine experiences.
When booking, travelers choose
from ready-made itineraries for plac-
es such as Isan, Ho Chi Minh and
Tokyo, all packed with local secrets
8 WANDERLUST
and hidden gems. And they can also
make special requests to tune trips
just to their liking, until they’ve de-
signed the kind of journey they really
want to write home about.
Like Thomas Cook, Besnier slipped
into this industry almost on acci-
dent. He left his career as a biologist
in France and came to Bangkok to
create a more inspiring lifestyle —
but without any blueprints detailing
how exactly he would build this new
life. And, as with most entrepreneurs,
the road Besnier took was neither
straightforward nor smooth.
Being an entrepreneur meant los-
ing friends, dealing with doubts from
others, even starting then abandon-
ing previous business ideas. Getting
involved in tourism with a back-
ground as a scientist meant he was
forced to learn a lot on the fly, too.
But his newcomer status was
probably a blessing in disguise. As
someone unfamiliar with the busi-
ness of tourism, Besnier was able to
develop fresh ideas that challenged
the status quo of travel, especially
here in Asia. Though many people ex-
pressed doubts that Very Local Trip’s
personalized, Airbnb-inspired, quality
(and thus pricier) model would take
off, the company’s accomplishments
have proved them wrong.
This story shows that sometimes
success is unlocked when personal
passion connects to the needs of the
market; and that is, in many ways,
the essence of Very Local Trip: It’s
a company founded on principles
in which Besnier believes, such as
love of travel, dedication to quality,
finding meaning and making friends.
When these values are coupled with
current trends — like the desire for
unique travel experiences — the
result is a business that seems only
destined for growth.
Maxime Besnier of
Very Local Trip