Noi Bai International Airport has just announced the case of a Filipino tourist who got lost in Hanoi's Old Quarter, taking a taxi to the airport to ask for help and wait to see relatives again.
Accordingly, the incident happened on the evening of January 2nd, when Mr. Junnie Reyes, 64 years old, Filipino nationality, got lost in the Hanoi Old Quarter area. He did not bring his phone, personal papers and did not remember the name of the hotel he was staying at.
After dinner with the tourist group, Mr. Reyes went out for coffee and could not find a way back to the hotel. With less than 200,000 VND in cash in his pocket, without any contact information, he took a taxi and asked the driver to take him to the only location he still remembers as "airport".
The passenger was taken by taxi to Passenger Terminal T2 - Noi Bai International Airport right during the New Year holiday. Mr. Reyes faced many difficulties in finding help, because he mainly uses local language and English is not fluent.
Unable to clearly state his desire to contact the authorities or the Embassy, the male tourist was forced to stay at the airport overnight. He waited until the next day hoping to meet his relatives when the whole group went to the airport to return home.
On the morning of January 3rd, Minh, a student at Hanoi University of Foreign Languages doing an internship at the airport as a customer care ambassador at Terminal T2, noticed Mr. Reyes's confusion. Minh proactively took the male tourist to the information counter at the Noi Bai Airport Operations Center on the 1st floor.
Realizing that the tourists were tired and lost direction, Ms. Hoang Thu Thuy, the information answering staff, and Minh patiently communicated with paper, pen, gestures and translation applications.
After a period of connecting information, they determined that Mr. Reyes was lost in the group, did not remember the hotel name and proactively went to the airport to wait to meet his relatives again.
As soon as she had clues, Ms. Thuy contacted the security department and the airport border gate police for support. Two border gate police officers looked up entry data, identified the hotel where the tourist group stayed and contacted directly.
The hotel and relatives said they were sharing a search for Mr. Reyes for more than a day in a state of anxiety. The identification of his location at Noi Bai airport helped the two sides quickly connect, ending the insecure journey of the guest.
After the incident, Ms. Grace Chang, head of the Philippine tourist delegation, sent a thank-you letter to airport staff and functional forces.
Ms. Grace shared: "Our vacation in Hanoi became memorable thanks to the support of the Hanoi Immigration Agency, and at the same time left a very good impression of the hospitality, willingness to help and kindness of the Vietnamese staff.
