According to Mr. Tim Duong, Vietnam’s tourism industry has many opportunities to recover from the pandemic. In particular, artificial intelligence (AI) is an effective solution in operating and managing accommodation units, contributing to improve the quality of domestic tourism.
Cross Chat Live Seminar on Vietnam Economic Outlook 2020-2021 organized by international business association in Ho Chi Minh City attracted the attention of many people. In particular, Mr. Tim Duong’s professional sharing in the field of tourism – technology got notice at the event. The reason is that before running Emerging Capital Group, Tim Duong held the role of Country Director for Vietnam at Booking.com – the world’s largest hotel booking group. Besides, the 38-year-old CEO had been in charge of important positions at many technology companies, including Coc Coc. From his extensive knowledge about the industry, he affirmed that there were still many good opportunities for accommodation businesses even at a time when the Covid-19 epidemic is complicatedly going on around the world.
Based on official reports from Booking.com and other sources, the CEO shared that the global tourism industry will take at least 2 years to recover because of Covid-19. In addition, the demand for travel tends to increase after the period of social isolation. Therefore, this is the time when the wave of domestic tourism in general and the demand for accommodation services in particular develop strongly. However, victory is only for those businesses that have a flair for capturing the wishes of their customers. In each country, each region, the consumption behavior of customers is different. The pricing strategy that hotels use is soon mentioned by Mr. Tim as an important tool that could help to get ahead of the flow of customers. “A lot of rooms have been booked for the future from Australia, America or Africa to Vietnam but no one knows it. Since these countries have different booking times, booking engines or booking sites, but if we understand the behaviors, market size and relevant regulations of each country, we can prepare and make a change from now on in each market with each stage,” said the CEO of Emerging Capital.
CEO Tim Duong especially emphasized the AI (artificial intelligence) solution that Emerging Capital is applying to management and operation, thereby helping to attract customers and boost revenue. “Recently, our proprietary AI solution has received many positive feedbacks from many accommodation units, including high-end resorts such as a chain of villas in Nha Trang, a resort in Hoi An. An, a chain of villas in Vung Tau and a number of big projects are about to be put into operation such as high-class resorts in Mai Chau, Quang Binh, Phu Quoc, Mui Ne, Luong Son…”, Mr. Tim shared at the conference.
Accordingly, this technology was born based on the study of human data around the world. For each individual in each region, each country, AI automatically analyzes data and applies a completely separate strategy. When applied to hotels, AI technology is understood as a sequence of strategic activities that have been automatically encoded and designed to match booking behavior of customers in future. By each stage, customer behavior will change due to external environmental influences as well as internal factors.
When this tool is applied for hotels, it means that the hotels know when customers in an area have a need to book a room, it will only display the price strategy that is suitable for customers in that area. This entire operation is automated. At the same time, the hotels also optimize marketing activities and shorten the distance between their brands and customers. The presence of AI in the management and operation process not only brings countless benefits to businesses but also helps customers make optimal choices, increase the quality of their experience when coming to Vietnam, thereby promoting the domestic tourism industry.