Students Take on Consulting Role for Travel Business

Vietnam’s tourism sector is gaining pace again as AI and digital technologies reshape how travellers search for and experience services. Against this evolving operational landscape, a travel company has brought a real business challenge into the classroom, asking students at British University Vietnam (BUV) to analyse and propose solutions as consultants.

Rapid Market Recovery Raises Operational Bar

According to official figures, Vietnam welcomed more than 17.5 million international visitors in 2024; in 2025, the number surpassed 21 million. The swift recovery following pandemic disruptions has presented tourism businesses with a new reality: scale may increase, but service standards cannot decline.

In the bespoke tour segment – where each itinerary is tailored to individual requests – the amount of information handled for each client is far greater than in mass-market tours. Greater demand for personalisation requires closer coordination between consultants, operations teams and local partners, while response speed is increasingly becoming a competitive factor.

Le Sy Quyen, Founder and CEO of Asia Pioneer Travel, said technology and AI are variables businesses cannot ignore in this context.

“It’s both exciting and challenging, and travellers will benefit the most. This requires businesses to evolve and adapt to new technology trends, integrating them into daily operations and customer service,” he said.

Founder and CEO of Asia Pioneer Travel discusses AI applications in travel operations with BUV students.

According to Quyen, as technology influences customer behaviour, companies must review internal processes, from data management to coordination between departments. “We highly value the skills and experience of our internal experts. However, fresh ideas from students are always appreciated and considered if applicable.”

It was this context that led the company to bring its operational challenges into the classroom.

Addressing Travel Business Challenge

Asia Pioneer Travel’s business case was integrated into the Tourism in Action module within BUV’s Tourism Management programme. The module requires students to work directly with industry stakeholders rather than analyse hypothetical scenarios.

According to Assoc. Prof. Maren Viol, Programme Lead for Tourism Management, the module is designed to consolidate knowledge students have accumulated during their first two years and place them in a real industry context. “Students must analyse the specific challenges businesses are facing and propose well-founded solutions. This prepares them for the professional environment after graduation,” she said.

In this project, students examined the company’s operational workflow, from handling customer enquiries and designing itineraries to post-trip follow-up.

BUV students present AI-driven marketing solutions for the travel business.

One proposal involved developing a dedicated mobile application for clients, aimed at consolidating itinerary details, service information and customer interaction throughout the travel journey. The student team argued that centralising data within a single platform could reduce information fragmentation and improve operational consistency.

However, as Tran Thi Minh Anh explained, arriving at the proposal required several rounds of refinement. “At first, we were quite nervous because we had never worked on real business problems before. The biggest challenge was making sure the solution could actually be implemented, not just be a good idea.”

Le Duc Hanh said the team had to examine development costs, operational manpower and alignment with the company’s existing business model. “We had to put ourselves in the company’s position and ask whether the solution was realistic under current conditions.”

Meanwhile, Dao Xuan Bach noted that limited real-world experience posed challenges. “At times, our team had conflicting viewpoints and needed to consult our lecturers to adjust our direction. Through this project, we better understood how to apply theories and models we had learned to a specific real-life context,” Bach said.

Throughout the project, students were allowed to use AI tools to support analysis and content development, but were required to clarify the extent of their use and take responsibility for their final conclusions.

After listening to the presentations, Quyen said he was impressed by the students’ attention to detail and work ethic. Some approaches, he noted, could be taken into consideration for future application.

What distinguishes this module is not the number of ideas immediately adopted, but the fact that students must defend their proposals against questions about cost, resources and operational feasibility – criteria that determine the sustainability of a service business.