By pioneering the application of digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI), young man Tran Viet Anh carries in him a great aspiration to bring the image of a peaceful, beautiful and culturally rich Vietnam far and wide on the world map.
From trips to the aspiration to serve the homeland
Mentioning Tran Viet Anh, many people immediately remember the image of a travel blogger who spent more than a decade setting foot in 63 provinces and cities across the country and 11 countries in Southeast Asia. According to Viet Anh, the biggest thing that trips bring is the opportunity to broaden his horizons, to understand more about people and homeland. The kindness received from strangers from all over the country has helped him realize that Vietnam is not only beautiful because of its natural scenery but also because of human kindness.
Traveling through lands associated with the heroic history of the nation makes the young man feel deeply grateful for the current peace, thereby urging his desire to contribute a small part to the country. However, the real predestined relationship that made him determined to turn to building tourism originated from a visit to the island of Indonesia.
After the trip, I was concerned when I realized that many international friends still imagine Vietnam as a poor country and associated with war memories, while our country is currently peaceful and developing strongly" - Viet Anh shared.
Viet Anh's journey was not paved with roses. He started from scratch, had to borrow money to start a business and quickly tasted failure due to lack of basic knowledge of business and management. Overcoming huge barriers and events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, he spent time studying seriously and starting over with a capital of only 2 million VND. These difficulties helped him realize that the bottleneck of many small and medium-sized tourism businesses in Vietnam is not capital, but a lack of systematic knowledge about marketing and digital transformation.
Digital technology and AI are levers for sustainable tourism
Belonging to the generation born in 1991, Viet Anh was exposed to technology early and strongly believed that digital technology is a powerful tool to narrow the gap between Vietnamese tourism businesses and the international market. Instead of relying on traditional promotion methods such as fairs or work with expensive costs but low access efficiency, digital marketing allows small businesses to appear before global partners every day with a cost equal to the salary of a middle-level personnel. Technology has empowered and created equal opportunities for all individuals and businesses in promoting the brand of their land.
Faced with the problem between modernization and preservation, Viet Anh has a very deep perspective on the role of artificial intelligence. He affirmed that AI does not erode local identity but on the contrary, it helps preserve and spread traditional values in a more attractive way. His team has now successfully built AI assistant systems to support market research, content production and marketing. Thanks to automation technology for repetitive tasks, people are freed up time to focus on irreplaceable tasks: Creativity and customer care.
Looking to the future of 5 to 10 years, Tran Viet Anh optimistically believes that the AI wave is one of the historic opportunities for the country's tourism industry. He emphasized: "Vietnamese people have intelligence, flexibility, adaptability and a very fast learning spirit. If we know how to make good use of AI and digital transformation, we can completely shorten the gap with the world.
When technology barriers are removed, Vietnamese tourism will rise to affirm its position with its core strengths being service quality, hospitality and unique cultural identity.
If we know how to make good use of AI and digital transformation, we can completely shorten the gap with the world. When technological barriers are resolved, what remains will be service quality, creativity and cultural identity. And those are Vietnam's very own strengths.
