Vietnamese online travel agency Vntrip.vn on Wednesday announced it had merged with Atadi.vn in an attempt to expand in the growing online tourism market.

Le Dac Lam, Vntrip.vn’s CEO, said that with the merger, his firm expects to develop into an online travel agency in Viet Nam which can compete with foreign rivals.

The online tourism market in Viet Nam has large untapped potential. The market was forecasted to increase from US$2.2 billion in 2015 to $9 billion by 2025, according to statistics from the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism. However, it was still dominated by foreign sites such as Agoda.com and Booking.com. Statistics from the Viet Nam e-Commerce Association in 2017 showed that foreign companies held more than 80 per cent of the market share.

Vntrip.vn on the same day signed a cooperation agreement with the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism to develop a database of tourist destinations by using 360-degree photo technology. The agreement is expected to create a basis for the application of technologies, especially artificial intelligence, in tourism promotion, and promote tourism connectivity to attract more foreign tourists.

Launched in 2014, Vntrip.vn has access to a network of more than 8,000 hotels in Viet Nam and more than one million hotels in more than 200 countries and territories.

Atadi.vn is known as one of the cheap airfare hunter sites in Viet Nam which helps users compare and book tickets online from different carriers. — VNS