VietNamNet Bridge - Online bookings have been developing rapidly in the tourism industry, bringing trillions of dong a year to travel firms, reports say.

Tourism profits increase thanks to higher demand

Hoang, a saleswoman for a travel firm in HCMC, gets up at 9 am every day. After having breakfast, she still has time to go to the convenience store on the ground floor of the apartment building to buy food to prepare lunch for her husband and daughter. At 10.20 am, Hoang leaves for her office.

“My working shift begins at 11.30 am, but I often work at night,” she said, adding that she and her colleagues in the online business division don’t have to follow the company’s working hours.

According to Hoang, the revenue that online sale channels bring remains modest, but she believes the situation will improve as the company’s manager is committed to spending money on developing online sales.

Nguyen Dang Kien, director of DiDi Adventure, also confirmed that the working hours of his staff are flexible. 

“Salespeople have to be online during the hours when they can meet clients the most, after lunchtime or at night, before clients go to bed,” he explained.

Kien, a graduate from a foreign university, began working in travel three years ago. 

The company’s websites, blogs and fanpages are designed to be easily accessed from mobile devices. IT staff, or staff undertaking work related to computer software, account for the largest proportion of the company’s staff.

Other travel firms have also increased investment in their online business after realizing that revenue from this area was on the rise.

For Saigontourist, the revenue from online sales amounted to 30 percent of total revenue in 2018, according to Saigontourist’ Marketing and Communication director Doan Thi Thanh Tra.

Tra confirmed that sales on the fanpage have been going well and the company has allocated more officers to the division. At the company, 80 percent of marketing activities have switched to digital marketing.

All tourism products, from low to high end, are available on the channel, while customers book big service packages worth tens to hundreds of million of dong. In July 2018, a client registered for a tour to Europe worth VND800 million.

The Thien Minh Group is also considering setting up a smart integrated tourism information exchange system to satisfy the requirements of busy people. iVIVU.com, one of the subsidiaries of the group, recently began operating its Olivia chatbot.

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