How Buffalo Tours? founder builds the business by taking to heart community reinvestment

Buffalo Tours, an adventure travel operator and DMC specialising in Thailand and Indochina that champions local empowerment and sustainable development

Founder Tran Trong Kien built the business by paying particular attention to ecological, socio-historical and micro-economic issues.

Most staff are local to ensure wages are reinvested in the local economies, while local guides ensure a more authentic travel experience for clients. The company was also instrumental in opening the Mai Chau region, south-west of Hanoi, to sustainable tourism. It worked to build the confidence of local villages and authorities to ensure basic infrastructure development was conducted in close collaboration with the affected communities, a project that has since inspired another in a region near the Chinese border.

The agency also pioneered volunteer tourism in Vietnam for short- and long-term placements for individuals and groups to undertake construction work, medical or nursery tasks, environmental activities and teaching for local communities. Projects selected must be transparent, have the support of the community but should not be supported by NGOs or other travel agents to ensure there is no duplication. Its social projects include a water buffalo fund to replace lost buffalos as the animals are crucial to communities, medical treks to Vietnam?s ethnic minorities in remote regions and a fledgling foundation that receives 10 per cent of the company?s annual profits and manages volunteers? payments and donations for health, education, environment and poverty eradication programmes.

By immersing itself in the local community, Buffalo Tours succeeded in opening Mai Chau to sustainable tourism and ensured its growth ? since its 1994 founding, the company has grown to 95 fulltime staff and about 120 part-time guides, all mostly local, and attracted 25,000 customers resulting in a 35 per cent increase in revenue. With selection and monitoring crucial to ensure volunteer projects deliver on expectations, the company plans to finetune the evaluation system to ensure mutually beneficial experiences for both the local communities and the volunteers.

Sourced= TTG asia