Digital technology integration is happening in many fields and industries including hospitality services.
According to a recent report from Grant Thompson, an accounting and advisory company, 89.8% of hotels in the study consider the integration of digital technologies to be a vital factor in changing Vietnam's hotel market. The report, named "Vietnam Upscale Lodging Industry 2018" and released in July 2018, studies four- and five-star hotels in 15 regions in Vietnam.
While the most popular digital technology integration in hospitality services is the use of digital marketing on social media channels such as Facebook and Instagram (with 100% of hotels are reported to be using), data mining and analysis is the second most popular type of application with 81% of five-star hotels and 71% of four-star hotels reported using, followed by mobile guest personalization and online check-in.
Taking into account that Vietnam's tourism industry brought in VND510 trillion (US$22 billion) in revenue last year - a 27.78% increase from 2016, the report also reveals that the earnings before interests, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) make up for 35.8% of the total revenue of upscale hotels, a 1.7% increase from 2016. Occupancy rate in 2017 also saw an average 5.3% increase across all hotels surveyed.
These upscale hotels' main source of guests is Asia(41.6%), excluding Vietnam, followed by Europe (20.2%), and Vietnam (19.2%).
