InterviewFormer Auction founder brings AI, decades of travel data to new app

Planning to visit Osaka with your family this fall? That could mean hours spent booking flights and accommodations and putting together a list of destinations in advance.

A new travel app aims to make that process easier.

Oh Hyuk, CEO of local tour company Les Vacances and the pioneer who founded Auction, Korea's first e-commerce platform in 1998, has taken on a new challenge in the travel industry with Vacance, an artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted travel platform.

The app generates an itinerary based on travelers' schedules. Users can also review flight and accommodation recommendations within the same app.

Unveiled this month, the app aims to revolutionize how people explore the world. It combines proprietary technology with human verified travel data accumulated over two decades by Les Vacances, allowing it to move far beyond simple itinerary generation.

In a recent interview with The Korea Times, the veteran developer explained how his app stands out by keeping inaccurate travel information out.

"General AI attempts to answer every question, but we dive deep into the single problem of travel," Oh said. "Travel information errors mean financial and time losses for travelers. Instead of letting the system guess at missing details, we check factual data like operating hours and prices against our verified database, structurally eliminating the room for fabricated facts."

The app relies on four special tech engines that work together to build realistic daily routes, check real-time local conditions, update guides automatically and customize recommendations based on user preferences.

The system was built on a massive amount of data collected by Les Vacances over 23 years, including 656 guidebooks and 83 specialized museum catalogs. Users gain free access to comprehensive Korean audio guides and digital catalogs for 77 major global art venues, including the Louvre Museum in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

To keep the model sustainable without charging users, Vacance relies on affiliate booking commissions, targeted business-to-business travel advertising and custom tour packages created by local inbound agencies.

Oh sees a massive market opportunity due to recent shifts in aviation and mobile technology.

"Free inflight Wi-Fi became a reality. Korean Air and Asiana Airlines started that service from Sept. 15, 2026," Oh noted. "As foldable smartphones gain popularity, travelers spending over 10 hours on a long flight will look at rich destination content rather than just streaming movies. We are positioning Vacance to capture that digital inflight experience."

For Oh, bringing this technology to market represents the culmination of a long career marked by relentless technological adaptation and personal resilience.

After leading Auction through its Kosdaq listing and subsequent acquisition by eBay in 2001, Oh spent over a decade in the Philippines.

While running businesses in the Philippines to support his family, he kept his technical skills sharp by developing enterprise software and studying big data and machine learning late into the night.

Even after surviving a severe medical crisis in 2024 that delayed the app's release, he returned to the field with renewed focus.

"If Auction connected people with products, Vacance connects people with the world," Oh said. "I will officially reach senior citizen status next February, but I still work over 100 hours a week. There is no retirement age for a developer, and my goal is to keep making the best travel guide possible."