Chairman of Vietravel Corporation Nguyen Quoc Ky. PHOTO: NVCC
Tet is a reunion for everyone, and an opportunity for businessmen.
Nearly two weeks before the Lunar New Year 2025, I asked Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ky to have a year-end coffee date at his company's office to fulfill his promise at the beginning of the year: "By the end of the year, we will sit down and see if tourism can recover 100% as I predicted. If Vietnam can welcome 20 - 23 million international visitors, I will treat you to a drink". By the end of 2024, Vietnam will welcome nearly 18 million international visitors, achieving the target set by the Ministry of Information, Culture, and Tourism and the Government, but it is still not enough for me to have "a drink" with Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ky.
But the coffee date had to be postponed to the beginning of the new year because a Vietravel Airlines plane suddenly had a bird strike and had to stop for technical inspection. With a young fleet of only 4 planes, one plane was grounded waiting for inspection, causing the entire flight schedule of Vietravel Airlines to be disrupted. The flight was canceled, hundreds of passengers waited to be arranged new flights, new seats, new planes... Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ky "welcomed the peak of Tet" a week early.
However, the optimistic energy of this storm-fighting captain is always present. He said quickly over the phone: "Luckily the bird hit the ship early, otherwise if it had been a few days later, at the peak of the bird's life, it would have been me who would have had to be taken to the emergency room, not just the ship. To celebrate this good fortune, I will treat you to a New Year's Eve party."
Operating in two specific fields, tourism and aviation - when everyone is on holiday and Tet is also the time when businesses enter the peak period - it seems that Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ky has forgotten that the days of rest are coming after a year of hard work.
"In this industry, there is no Tet holiday. For example, on the first day of Tet, there is a group of foreign guests celebrating Tet but their family has problems and they cannot go, or now working in aviation, on the 30th - 1st there is a delayed flight... at any time, there are all kinds of unexpected things that you have to deal with. When people go out, you work, and when people work, you have to prepare. For normal people, Tet is a time for reunion, for gathering, for resting and regenerating labor , but for businessmen in the tourism and aviation service industry like us, Tet is an opportunity to accelerate revenue that we must grasp very well. This is the fulcrum for a year of smooth business" - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietravel Corporation said.
Lunar New Year 2025 is even more meaningful to Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ky because this year marks the 10-year journey of Vietravel's breakthrough, after having gone through the journey of being a pioneer of the brilliant age of 20 (2014 - 2024) with the slogan "youth rising up". At such a big milestone, Vietravel needs to prepare carefully for the next 10-year journey to realize the goal of becoming an international tourism corporation. The plan is to penetrate deeply into the Indian market, "attack" 6 key markets in Europe, expand market share from the West Coast to the East Coast of the US, form a multi-modal product system across Vietnam... Many "huge" plans are replacing apricot blossoms, peach blossoms, banh chung, pickled onions, red parallel sentences... taking up all of Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ky's Tet holidays.
Vietravel is focusing on a new year 2025 to make a breakthrough, starting the journey to become a Vietnamese tourism group reaching international standards.
Treat yourself to a 'luxurious' end-of-year afternoon
- "So does that mean the "travel tycoon" will celebrate Tet without changing his mind?" - I asked.
Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ky smiled and replied: "Every year I stay in Ho Chi Minh City, I don't go anywhere. During Tet, everyone goes back to their hometowns, so staying in the city alone is also fun and enjoyable. Besides, I have to be on duty. On the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, I'm mainly on duty at the office, just running back and forth to the member units. I'm the head of the company, at the moment of New Year's Eve, if I'm not there, if I don't go to wish my colleagues on duty a happy new year, if I don't encourage them, and inspire them for a brilliant new year, it's not good...".
- "Always just work, a whole year of work, do you feel overloaded? Why don't you reward yourself with a moment of relaxation and rest?" - I interrupted.
- Yes! Normally on the afternoon of the 30th of Tet, like this year it is the 29th, I will allow myself to enjoy a luxury, which is to just sit in my room, turn on the music really loud and not think about anything. I will just sit there, close my eyes and listen to the music. At around 4 pm, I will make an appointment with my old friends. For more than ten years, every year-end afternoon we will make an appointment to gather at that exact location, park our cars there, and go to that restaurant to sit. We don't talk about work, just random stories about people, about daily life , about old memories, reminiscing about the past. Sometimes no one says anything, just sits sipping a bottle of wine, smoking a cigarette, and at around 7 pm everyone goes home. That is the time when I feel most comfortable, truly comfortable. Maybe for me, that is enough for Tet."
Thanhnien.vn
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