73% of Vietnamese tourists plan their trips through social media.

Digital transformation: an inevitable trend for the tourism industry.

According to data from Klook, an e-commerce platform for experiences and travel, 54% of Gen Z in Asia-Pacific and 69% of Gen Z in Vietnam use social media as their primary tool for finding inspiration and planning travel.

67% of travelers in the Asia-Pacific region and 73% in Vietnam prefer checking reviews and travel recommendations on social media when planning a vacation, considering it an important source of information before booking.

"Digital travelers crave authenticity. They prefer concise, easily shareable content that is informative and readily available on mobile devices," said Nguyen Huy Hoang, CEO of Klook Vietnam.

It's clear that the tourism industry is facing a major shift as young people become increasingly active online, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a surge in digital transformation in the tourism sector.

"Unlike previous generations, young people's travel inspiration, booking, and destination choices are almost entirely dependent on social media. This is considered the new normal," Mr. Hoang emphasized.

The era of online travel agencies and travel apps.

In recent years, it's easy to see the rapid development of online travel agency channels, with some of the "big players" including Booking, Agoda, and Traveloka…

Customers, especially young people, are always looking for convenience. Travel websites and mobile apps, with their optimal advantages such as allowing bookings anytime, anywhere, and providing reviews and overviews, are increasingly becoming familiar resources for travel enthusiasts.

CS Soong, vice president of market development at Klook, said the e-commerce platform for travel services has achieved sales of $3 billion, tripling its pre-pandemic figures, despite the fact that the tourism landscape in the Asia-Pacific region has not yet fully recovered.

“This growth is thanks to Klook’s efforts to diversify its travel products and services. Our platform now offers over 530,000 activities in more than 2,300 destinations worldwide, ranging from leisure activities like theme parks, water parks, museums, and destination tours, to travel services such as airport transfers, car rentals, and train tickets,” said Mr. Soong.

In addition, this e-commerce platform also focuses on implementing marketing campaigns in collaboration with celebrities on social media platforms… in order to easily reach its target customer base of young people.

Simultaneously, Klook is also accelerating the application of AI technology to build the Klook AI (K.AI) chatbot to assist customers in planning trips and making booking decisions.

Assessing the market outlook from now until the end of the year, Mr. Hoang believes that tourism demand will continue to increase sharply, citing data from the Vietnam National Tourism Administration recording 86 million domestic tourists, a 44% increase compared to 2019.

Accordingly, the year-end holiday season will lead to a surge in travel demand. To stimulate the market, this platform is also launching a series of massive promotions, such as giving away 10,000 free tickets to most famous amusement parks and water parks worldwide.

In addition, many special offers and promotions such as buy 2 get 1 free, buy 3 get 1 free at leading parks like Sun World, Disneyland, and VinWonders will also be applied during the year-end and Tet holiday periods.