Tran Trong Kien ditched the medical profession for travel & tourism and listens so well to its heartbeat that his Thien Minh Group, which owns Buffalo Tours and Victoria Hotels & Resorts, is going regional.
You ran local tours to fund your medical studies. How did you end up as a tourism entrepreneur rather than a doctor?
It was summer work and I found guiding French tourists enjoyable. I set up a small tour guides’ office to create jobs for friends, who were six or seven other medical students.
We were all born in 1973, Year of the Buffalo, hence, Buffalo Tours. None of us had any guiding experience. What we had was pride in our country and the desire to show visitors its authenticity – the street food, villages, etc.
How did tourists find you?
At the time (1994), Vietnam was opening itself to the world. There was no infrastructure. There were only state-owned tourism companies like Saigontourist. Our tour guiding was far superior – we were young, educated, eager – and as a result, travel companies started approaching us. A lot was also through word of mouth.
Soon, we started booking transport and became rather like a DMC. This wasn’t the plan at all.
What made you stick to the industry?
1995 was a special year; it’s quite like Cuba today: after years of isolation, the US embargo was lifted. Private sector was allowed to enter and business suddenly grew.
I also began to enjoy running a business. Later, as we grew, I went for an MBA, as running a business requires you to know how to read a balance sheet, how to do marketing, etc, which medical studies does not teach you.
Are the others still with you?
Yes. It’s because of trust and it made me realise what a treasure it is to have the trust and the belief of your team.
Your parents must have flipped when their son became a DMC chief rather than a doctor.
They were proud when I went to medical school. My parents always give me the total freedom to do what I want to do, including going to medical school, then going into this business. It was a shock for my friends, however.
What about the business did you particularly enjoy?
We were young, had the best education in the city and were eager to learn. We had a blank slate to create something and, by 1997-98, we created a name as the first company in Vietnam to offer the concept of experiential travel – nothing fabricated, helping people to enjoy the culture and even, having a commitment to the community.
As medical students, we were trained to do no harm – try to find the root cause first and the different solutions to a problem. Through tour guiding, we also met amazing people. One of them, Mike, was a founder of the ecotourism society in Washington DC. It’s people like him, through a week of kayaking with us, who opened my eyes as to why tourism should be a business that supports community conservation.
Everyone now professes to be engaged in sustainability. So how do you stay different when the USP is now the norm?
Yes, it’s a standard today, but that’s good for the environment. As for staying different, there is never a boundary that stays still or fixed. It moves everytime. We just have to be nimble and flexible, and adopt changes quickly as a result of changes from the demand side, be it geographical or the tastes of clients.
You went on to buy Victoria Hotels & Resorts, seaplanes, cruises, etc. Why?
As a DMC, we’re a middleman. If we’re to grow, especially in a developing country in the 90s, we need to be able to control the entire supply chain.
So we started buying smaller hotels and now we own 12 hotels. We also looked at innovative transportation means, so that our guests could travel from point A to B with our train, then cruise on our boat and stay in our hotel – imagine the total experience and how we could control this whole experience.
And now Buffalo is going regional with the JV with 
Flight Centre (TTG Asia e-Daily, December 19, 2014). Why Flight?
They share our fundamental belief that the passenger is a human being and wants interaction. And this is why tour operators and retail agencies will continue to thrive.
In a small country like Singapore where you’ve just opened office, how do you compete with the other established DMCs?
We compete by bringing the company spirit and our beliefs and values to the market. We don’t mind investing and we’re looking at six to eight new, authentic experiences in Singapore unique to Buffalo. It could be, for example, a seaplane experience, an overnight cruise, a cycling programme across the island – each will be an engaging experience.
We also have local experts, the right people on the ground who have the ability to connect with clients and who can create a total experience. Our general manager in Singapore, Carol Tan, for example, is extremely experienced. Combined with our technology and distribution, we will do well.
Why do you prefer to set up afresh than buy an existing regional DMC?
It’s easier to create a new one and train the people on the culture and spirit of Buffalo, compared with buying company X, where we have to scrap their values, then retrain.
What’s your advice to young entrepreneurs in emerging markets such as Indochina?
We don’t need to follow the models or brands set up in the West. We can create our own. I have often wondered why it is rare for an Asian homegrown model to grow regionally, then globally. I believe if you have the guts and the intelligence, you can create something that comes from your own backyard. Hopefully, this message will be an inspiration to young entrepreneurs in places like Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
This article was first published in TTG Asia, February 13, 2015 issue, on page 11. To read more, please view our digital edition or click here to subscribe.
