THE CON TRÂU TIMES Issue 1 - Jan - 2012
Inspirational Travel 1
THE CON TRÂU TIMES
Inside This Issue 1.
Promotion at Buffalo Tours
2.
Joining Buffalo Tours
3.
Leaving the Buffalo Family
4.
Staff of Month
5.
Living in Viet Nam
6.
Year End Party in BT Vietnam
7.
ATF Trade Show
8.
Happy Saturday Trip at Binh Luc Orphanage
9.
Feedback on what members of staff have been doing
10.
Vacancies in BT Hanoi
11.
Tips: Listen Without Reacting
12.
Birthdays and Anniversaries
Promotion at Buffalo Tours Mr. Lorien Alecki Jonathan – Brand & Communication Manager – Marketing Department.
Joining Buffalo Tours Ms. Dinh Trang - Business Development Executive – Thien Minh Group. Mr. Do Van Long – IT Project Manager - Thien Minh Group.
Leaving Buffalo Tours Ms. Le Thi Nhung –Travel Consultant – BTA Ha Noi. Ms. Marie- Anne Palces –Product & Business Development Manager – BTA Ha Noi. Thank you for your contributions to Buffalo Tours and we wish you success in the future!
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Staff of the month
Dec 2011
Ms Tran Bich Thuy – VET – Team Leader Exceed 2011 annual budget by 20% with actual revenue $779K vs budget $650K Surpass budgeted profit margin of 40% with actual profit margin of 42% Set up ISO processes on VET sales process, project management, donation handling to improve team efficiency Develop new VET project Cuc Phuong Endangered Primate Rescue Centre & Lock in new series from Oyster Worldwide Maintain good morale within VET team through regular training, fair work allocation, and leadership Excellent agent/pax feedback for the services provided by VET team
Ms Lo Viet Ha – Travel Consultant – Team Leader Since promoted to Team leader position, Ha has constantly proven her dedication and her loyalty to the company. She has been very supportive to her team, giving them the guidance and training required to bring them to the level of service expected for BTA. Ha is also providing full support to her manager. Her capacity to take on new challenges and her interest in developing her career within the company make her an asset for BT. Sales in Hanoi have not reached set objectives, but Ha has met many challenges and had to manage single-handedly an entirely new team. Therefore she has proved herself to her management.
People are our most valuable resource! Nominate someone you think deserves recognition – someone who truly shines!
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THE CON TRÂU TIMES
Living in Viet Nam H
aving heard so much about TET when back In Australia it’s exciting for my family to now be living in Vietnam and to be able to enjoy such a cultural and traditional Vietnamese experience. It’s been very interesting watching the city of Hanoi transform in readiness for the week of celebration ahead. The shops start filling up with gifts and hampers, the streets are decorated with colourful flowers, traditional food is sold in small street stalls and people hand out lucky money in small red envelopes. Somehow the traffic becomes even more congested as people zip around on motor bikes delivering peach trees with beautiful pink flowers or orange cumquat trees. I find it fascinating the amount of tradition that is associated with TET. I’ve learnt that Vietnamese are very particular about their New Year traditions and customs as on the first day of TET their fate and luck for the New Year ahead is determined. Some TET traditions that my family plan to follow are : • Invite someone to be the first person to enter our house who has had happy experiences, success and wealth over the last year
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• Decorate our place and wear the colour red to shield away evil spirits • Not put out the rubbish on the first day of TET as it is believed that you are throwing away your good luck • I will also plan to pay off some of our debts • We will visit a nearby temple to burn incense as we remember our ancestors and family members who are no longer with us. My family will spend TET in Hoian to escape with cold Hanoi weather and we look forward to having some fun, quality family time together on the beach. However just like our Christmas back in Australia what I look forward to the most is seeing all the children’s faces light up as they show off their new clothes and proudly play with all their new gifts. For my children they think it will be really cool to see a dancing dragon in the street. I would like to wish you all the best of luck, happiness and prosperity for 2012 - The year of the Dragon By Ray Petts – GM Inbound, BT Vietnam
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THE CON TRĂ‚U TIMES
Year End Party IN BT VIETNAM
T
he Buffalo Tours end of year party was held at the Intercontinental hotel and attended by all staff, family members, guides and suppliers based in Hanoi. The party was the place where all staff looked back at the year that has passed and towards a more successful New Year. People chatted and took pictures together. My colleagues and I have to prepare for the special performance during the opening ceremony which was second to none due to the great selection of songs chosen. We danced together, sang together and all the pressures of the job were no longer, but instead there was kind of an emotional intimacy between us all. Finally, I wish and hope in the coming years people will have more fun at work and with family, the company will grow and love between people in the company will increasingly more durable. By Quyen Le – BTA
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ATF Trade Show G
ood morning from Manado, I’m happy to announce that the ATF 2012 has successfully completed and ready for ATF 2013 in Laos.
Manado also known as Menado is the largest city in and main gateway to Northern Sulawesi, Indonesia. This is quite far from the rest of Indonesia and most visitors arrive by plane. Manadonese food is famous throughout Indonesia for two things: the Minahasa eat absolutely anything, and the flavor of choice is very, very spicy. Sugar is used only a little if at all, with flavor added through lemon and herbs. Being Christian, the Minahasa also often marinate meat in alcohol and favor pork. More exotic protein options include cats, forest rats, fruit bats, and dogs. The main dish I had from the 1st day to now is Nasi Goreng, this is a kind of Cantonese rice. Mr Hayo from the Thailand office and myself attended ATF this year and we really worked well together. On 12 Jan 2012 we started decorating the booth although we had some challenges we finished before a first clients come to visit Buffalo Tours booth.
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For following days we talk and met many potential new customers who are interested in our products. I am hopeful that after returning from the ATF 2012 we will have many new leads to follow up. By Nguyen Hoang Hai – Group Reservation, BT Vietnam
THE CON TRÂU TIMES
A Happy Saturday Trip at Binh Luc Orphanage
B
inh Luc Orphanage provides a home for 43 children aged between 3 and 15 and is a 90 minute drive from Hanoi. The children of Binh Luc come from disadvantaged agricultural communities. In many cases the families cannot afford to raise or educate the children and are forced to abandon them. With limited assistance from the local government, the orphanage relies heavily on donations and sponsorship. Buffalo Tours is proud to be a leading patron for the orphanage. A monthly fund from Buffalo Tours is now directly transferred to Binh Luc for a nutritional program and we are working on a many other projects for the orphanage like building the new library, kitchen. Last Saturday, Volunteer and Educational Travel Team arranged a Happy Saturday trip to Binh Luc to bring gifts, donation and scholarship for the children there. There were 18 people on the trip and we did have so much fun with the children and the staff at Binh Luc orphanage. Together we organized a very big and warm Tet party. A lot of performances and games were organized and it was such a good feeling to see so many smiley and happy faces. We also took this chance to provide scholarship to the children who have the best results in their studying, hope that our little support can encourage and motivate them to have better results in the new school year: We trust that the trip did not only bring the happiness and joy to the children in Binh Luc but also give us the Buffalo Tours staff that joined the trip a very good feeling and so much fun. It was really a happy Saturday trip. We will arrange some more trips in Children Day, Midautunm Festival this year so please don’t hesitate to join and together spend another Happy Saturday or Sunday with us . By Tran Bich Thuy -VET Team
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N O K C A B D E E F
THE CON TRĂ‚U TIMES
IO NG D N EE B E V A H S R E B M E M F F A T S R U O T A H W Hi
After researching many tour companies for our 3 week trip to Cambodia and Vietnam we followed our Travel Agents recommendations and decided to book with Buffalo Tours. We had a wonderful experience and could not fault Buffalo Tours at all. They tailor made our itinerary based around what we wanted to see, time frame and budget. The hotels they recommended were all very centrally located, clean and good value for money. The local guides in Siem Reap, Hanoi and HCMC were all different but very good and the included excursions such as cooking class in Hanoi and Hoian were both great fun. We were going to research the trip and book it all direct as I thought it would be cheaper but my agent took our details on what we wanted to see and do, we had the quote back the next day from Buffalo, we made some small adjustments and it was done – way too easy. I have no hesitation to recommend Buffalo Tours based on our experiences and will be travelling with them on our next trip to Thailand and Laos this year. David Coulter & Sally Greer
Dear Hao I just wanted to mail and thank you for organising our fabulous tour of Ho Chi Minh City with Anthony our guide on the last day of our holiday in Vietnam in December. We had an absolute ball in Hoi An and the tour was a fabulous end to our brilliant holiday :) I have included a photograph of Anthony assisting an 87 year old lady across the road near the markets. He was a brilliant guide and as this photo shows, a true gentleman. Thank you again and keep up the good work Vicki Platt and Craig Park :)
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THE CON TRÂU TIMES Vacancies in BT Vietnam A good opportunity – And good rewards HR Department would like to inform that we are currently recruiting for position in the Marketing, BTA and Sales departments. All the positions will base in Hanoi office and this is a good chance for our sale staff to step up in their career path with BT. We have a scheme of incentive for referral at 1 Million VND/ position. Please recommend your friends who has suitable qualification to apply. For more information please visit our link: http://www.buffalotours.com/about-us/careers.html
Listen Without Reacting Listening is harder than speaking. Even the best listeners sometimes have to bite their tongues to stop from reacting, interrupting, or trying to console the person talking. Here are three ways you can truly listen: • Avoid distractions. This doesn’t just mean putting down the Blackberry or closing your web browser. Try not to think about what you’re going to say next. Simply focus on what the other person says. • Repeat back. This sometimes feels silly, but repeating back what you heard shows the other person that you’re listening. • Ask thoughtful questions. Ask open-ended questions that help you see the issue more clearly and allow your conversation partner to go deeper into what he cares about. “From Harvard Business Review”
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& Anniversaries
Birthdays
THE CON TRÂU TIMES
Birthdays: Huynh Minh Phu Dinh Doan Trang Hoang Ngoc Loc Nguyen Tuan Dat Tran Trong Kien Le Van Din Yuwadee Laovechprasit Parinrada Pakda Bui Thi Hao Dao Thanh Xuan Hayo Massop Tran Thi Hong Nhung Suy Vet
Feb 4th Feb 4th Feb 6th Feb 8th Feb 11th Feb 12th Feb 15th Feb 16th Feb 18th Feb 19th Feb 21st Feb 22nd Feb 28th
Driver – SG Office Agent Sale Executive - Team Leader Tour Leader IT Supporter CEO Tour Leader Purchasing Executive – BT Thailand Sales Executive– BT Thailand GR Executive Online Marketing Executive FOX Area Manager – BT Thailand Chief Accountant-TM Volunteer Coordinator – BT Cambodia
Anniversaries: Pham Minh Huong Tran Bich Thuy Pham Thi Thuy Nguyen Thanh Hoang Tran Thanh Loan Nguyen Song Tung Nguyen Thu Huong Sarayuth Toasing Khim Phalla Sophon Sith Suy Vet Woraphon Phanno
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Accountant VET - Team Leader GR Executive Driver – SG Office Agent sales Executive Online Sales Hr Executive Reservations Executive- BT thailand Sales & Reservations Team leader Office Assistant Reservations Executive cum Volunteer Coordinator Sales Executive - BT thailand
04 years in service 04 years in service 01 year in service 04 years in service 04 years in service 04 years in service 01 year in service 02 years in service 03 years in service 03 years in service 03 years in service 01 year in service