IN the new age of travel, the need for a collaborative tourism scene has been called a prerequisite to support robust growth and recovery. In that sense, Klook, a major travel and experiences platform, has been on quite the roll recently.
Klook has just announced partnerships with two key players in Vietnam’s experiences and attractions scene, Sun World and VinWonders – to drive demand to Vietnam. Both partnerships will include a variety of digital marketing initiatives, promotional content and campaigns to increase awareness of the destination’s offerings and hidden gems, with the aim of positioning Vietnam as a top destination for international travelers.
While the recovery of countries like Vietnam, as well as Southeast Asia in general, is a work in progress, data shows that travel growth in the country is promising. In fact, Vietnam is projected to welcome travellers from certain countries that surpass pre-Covid levels.
Michelle Ho (General Manager of Philippines, Thailand & Vietnam, Klook) said, “Despite the current macroeconomic conditions, travel is still top of mind for consumers and Vietnam continues to be a firm fan favourite. Our partnerships with both Sun World and VinWonders come at a perfect time, and we are confident that we will see strong growth in the market for 2023 as travel comes back stronger than ever before.”
Based on Klook’s internal data, Vietnam recorded exponential growth in demand in 2022, surpassing pre-Covid levels for markets such as Singapore (+50%) and India (+260%). With Vietnam expecting to welcome 8 million international travelers in 2023, these strategic partnerships between Klook and domestic service providers will play a role in driving international travelers to Vietnam and enable Sun World and VinWonders to capitalize on this rising demand.
Sun World
The partnership between Sun World and Klook will ensue throughout the year 2023. The main aim of this partnership is to accelerate the recovery of inbound travel to Vietnam by encouraging free and independent (FIT) travelers in key inbound markets, namely South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, and India to discover the beauty of Vietnam and booking local experiences.
The partnership also entails launching digital marketing campaigns and developing promotional content on Vietnam and Sun World attractions. We’ve written before about the importance of digital content in today’s travel space and how brands are utilising this content to attract new consumers.
It’s interesting to note that Klook is the first OTA to partner with Sun World on a regional integrated marketing campaign of this scale.
VinWonders
As for VinWonders, their partnership with Klook will be active from March 2023 to May 2023. As with SunWorld, the collaboration aims to accelerate the recovery of travel to Vietnam by driving awareness of, and consideration for both Vietnam and VinWonders attractions among free and independent travelers (FIT) in South Korea and India.
It also encompasses developing and curating inspirational content and launching digital campaigns and similar to SunWorld, Klook is the first OTA to partner with VinWonders on such inbound marketing initiatives.
Last year, we covered the partnership between Klook and Booking.com and what it meant for tourism in the region. At the media event, Mattias Schmid (SVP for the Booking.com Trips division), said the key objective of this partnership was to offer customers a more seamless experience. Instead of planning a trip on different platforms, OTAs, and verticals, a cross-blend of listings would improve the process of booking activities and accommodation within a single ‘search’. It’s a user journey that takes time to enhance and can’t be simply fixed overnight, Matthias added.
Wilfred Fan (Chief Commercial Officer, Klook) called the partnership a milestone event in Klook’s 8-year history. Fundamentally, it allows the brand to tap into a new segment of travelers while creating more opportunities for merchant partners.
Partnerships like these allow both platforms to utilise each other’s strengths – tapping into demographics and consumer needs that’s either more niche or more exclusive to each brand.
This was echoed by Nguyen Thi Huong Giang (Deputy General Manager of Sun World), who said “While 2022 was considered the year of recovery with positive signs of the domestic tourism market, 2023 is the pivotal year for international tourists to start returning to Vietnam strongly. With the potential and strategy of Sun World and Klook, as well as our strategic partnership, we believe that the two brands’ core values and advantages, combined with the experience of cooperation, understanding and trust will help us to successfully complete the set goals”.
As part of our WiT Studio series, Hari Nair (SVP, Lodging and Partners, Expedia Group) and Eric Gnock Fah (Co-founder and CEO, Klook) discussed the state of the travel industry, key trends, and Klook’s strategy in tackling a new and interesting landscape.
WiT Studio is a series of exclusive interviews with key players in the industry to discuss the new age of travel, tech, and tourism in Asia and beyond. Subscribe to our YouTube channel here.
