Is it possible to build a five-star resort that strikes the perfect balance between luxury, sustainability, and community care? For Christopher Stafford, cofounder of Visama Hospitality Group (VHG), the secret ingredient lies in curating a memorable experience for their guests.
Image courtesy of Chris E. Stafford
“Profitability… shouldn’t be the focus of our business; if the focus is money, you’ll never be satisfied,” he tells us. “Satisfaction comes from creating value that people will remember and never forget.”
We rang Chris up to talk about his new project, the Visama Lodges Mae Chan luxury tented camp in Chiang Rai, Thailand. This is VHG’s first high-end lodge in Asia, featuring 10 luxuriously appointed tents. Guests come to enjoy Northern Thailand’s countryside, best seen through immersive two- to four-day “journeys” centered around themes such as farm-to-table dining, Lanna cultural appreciation, artistic engagement, and outdoor adventure.
Chris also highlights the Visama’s unique blend of five-star amenities and a charitable mission, designed to support the Friends of Thai Daughters foundation, which aims to prevent child trafficking and empower girls from hill tribe communities.
In the interview below, we get Chris Stafford’s thoughts on Visama’s mission, its green cred, and the surprising secret to staff training.
How did Visama as a project come about?
Visama’s name comes from the Sanskrit meaning “to journey”. The project was built on VHG founder Willem Niemeijer‘s idea of building very comfortable, almost luxury-level tented camps in remote regions, where people could connect with nature.
Post Covid, we came out into a new world, in terms of people’s view on health and nature and being outside, particularly in Thailand, we noticed a big shift to that direction.
Our partners, Khiri Travel and Yaana Ventures, have always been involved in various community projects. We were fortunate to meet Patty Zinkowski and Jane McBride, who started the Friends of Thai Daughters. For 26 years, these ladies had been helping hill tribe girls in northern Thailand, and they now wanted to work with us on building a tented camp, which would also provide employment opportunities for the local community.
Image courtesy of Visama Mae Chan
You’re a long-standing veteran in luxury hospitality in the region. What did you bring to the table? How did you bring your own experiences and insights?
The challenge was always working with “capital-efficient” budgets to produce something really special. I’ve built luxury brands before, but creating a luxury brand like this is a different challenge.
Our project manager was able to secure high quality fixtures and equipment at a heavy discount, from local suppliers who had supplied local five-star hotels. We bought two old Thai houses from which the timber was recycled into all the flooring. We had to be a little bit more innovative than you would normally.
The fortunate aspect of the project was that it was in northern Thailand, and I opened the Anantara there 20 years ago. If I had to pick an area that had the lowest hurdles, it would be that part of Thailand, because its people are superbly kind and they’re very willing to learn.
It was a joy to open this project. It’s definitely not going to get us listed on the stock exchange – but from a professional point of view, it was extremely gratifying.
What takeaway do you want visitors to draw from their experience at the Visama Mae Chan?
Getting away from the noise: I think people seek that more and more. Getting back to nature: we’re bringing back what’s been lost in the last 80 years due to global mass urbanization.
I’d like people to visit, then leave feeling more peaceful. Less worried about the need to be connected 24-7. When you sit out at the Ambalama and you see the starlight at night and you go, “wow, it’s amazing.” When you wake up in the morning and you hear massive birdsong because you’re in the jungle. The feeling of quietness is something that’s quite treasured nowadays, particularly if you live in a place like Bangkok.
In our restaurant, the chef has produced a menu which even takes some forest foraging into account. Our rice is not grown in paddies, it’s grown on hilltops, the way it was done thousands of years ago. It has a much more grainy feel, but it’s much richer than the refined rice that you buy.
Image courtesy of Visama Mae Chan
Do guests have face to face encounters with members of the local hill tribe communities?
Yes, very much so. We’re located in Mae Chan, in the hill tribe area of Thailand, northwest of Chiang Rai. (Editor’s note: Mae Chan has a long history as a trading post for Akha, Lisu and Yao hill tribes.) We’re surrounded by about four hill tribe villages within 20 minutes of the resort.
The overall ethos of Visama was to create trails through remote areas. So in Thailand, we’ve created the Lanna or Northern Trail. For the guests, it’s a nice experience. We bike through rice paddy country, we go from village to village, we have hikes that do the same. Within about an hour by road, guests find pretty much everything they want to see culturally in northern Thailand.
Guests can see the school for the hill tribe girls, run by the owners’ foundation. They get to see and meet kids that are going on to universities overseas eventually. From these young ladies, we have three of them working in the resort. They’re all speaking English, Thai and other languages.
What efforts did your team take to reduce the Visama Mae Chan ’s ecological footprint?
Around our area, we obviously have reforestation as one of our things. We have about four or five acres of the land in total, which could be reforested. There is a teak forest on the property. Within that forest, there are indigenous flora and fauna. Bringing bird life from the mountains down to our forest revolves around making sure we have the right plants. That attracts bird life and wildlife in general.
We have organic cuisine; pretty much 90% of what we consume as a property is from the area, including the farm run by the girls. There are no chemical ingredients going into production. So it’s all naturally harvested.
Image courtesy of Visama Mae Chan
In the case of Visama Mae Chan, is it challenging to balance sustainability and the need to produce a profit?
No, not at all. By virtue of the fact that you’re sourcing everything locally, you’re doing two things. One, you’re creating profit in the local community. Secondly, you’re creating authenticity.
Profitability is important to a degree. but it shouldn’t be the focus of our business. If the focus is money, you’ll never be satisfied. Where satisfaction comes from is creating a value in the product that people will remember and never forget.
You’ve been working in the hospitality industry in Thailand for a while now. Are there any particular trends in tourism that you’re seeing within the Greater Mekong Subregion that you think are worth noting?
The bigger trend is health and welfare, and what I call “well-being” as opposed to “wellness”. More Thais are participating in outdoor activities. If you go to camping sites in national parks, they’re now all full of people with tents; it wasn’t it wasn’t a big deal in Thailand before.
A lot of young people are moving into the ecosphere. Young Asians are much more aware of the environment than their parents were. So I think that’s a trend and that’s going to change the way tourism will be run.
Image courtesy of Visama Mae Chan
How well do you think hotels or tourist stakeholders in the Mekong are upskilling upcoming generations of hospitality workers?
At the end of the day, training people is the real fundamental of our business. Training goes hand in hand with understanding the nuances of people. We train our people to learn how people are feeling, what their sentiments are. I call that an internal audit: how do you feel in the first 10 seconds when you walk in somewhere?
At Visama, our staff are all taught to write little notes to guests every day. Different letters about anything particular to that guest. Something like, “We hope the cushion you asked for is the right one. I wish you a restful sleep!” And they leave that note with them.
Then, be cognizant, be aware, and look at everything in the room. What did they eat last night? What did they throw away in the garbage can? You then give them what they want: if you see that they’ve eaten three apples, don’t give them five bananas the next day. Just give them three more apples. You make a friend for life.
It’s just a myriad of details, but it’s fun because you get excitement from the fact that the guests actually value it.
Could you tell me about the future plans for Visama Lodges?
We are in the process of preparing to build more Visama Lodges throughout Asia. It’s an exciting time, but we’ll see how it goes from here. Speak to me in a few months, I’ll know a lot more by then.
Right now, in terms of goal setting, we want to open throughout Asia, Southeast Asia particularly. Our partners, Khiri Travel and Yaana Ventures, are in eight countries in Southeast Asia. They want to expand in places like Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Philippines.
We want to create a North Vietnam Trail. We want to create a trail in Sri Lanka’s highlands. We want to do a trail in Flores, Indonesia. I mean, we have plans, but the best laid plans are only the ones that actually happen.
