Recently, Wotif Group signed a joint venture with Thien Minh Group which will see the two parties establish an OTA under the brand of iviVu.
WIT interviews Tran Trong Kien, a medical doctor turned travel entrepreneur, and founder of Buffalo Tours in Vietnam and Indochina.
Q: What was the intention when you set up IviVu?
While online travel distribution is still in its infancy in Vietnam and indeed in Indochina, there are some good signs to predict sustainable growth in the coming years.
- Together with inbound arrivals, domestic and outbound travel is growing rapidly reaching over 30 million trips in 2011
- Internet penetration is pretty high (over 20 million internet users in Vietnam)
- Good increase in credit card users (about two million now)
- Hotels want to diversify their distribution channels and there are a lot of small hotels
- There is no serious player yet in the OTA market servicing the local consumers.
Changes are rapid and we believe online distribution will become an important channel. Perhaps reaching 10-15% in the next three to five years.
Full Story:
www.webintravel.com//news/vietnams-online-travel-poised-for-growth-says-buffalo-tours-kien_1691 
