The New Competitive Advantage: How Airwallex is Powering Global Growth for Vietnam's Tourism Industry and Beyond

Vietnam’s travel sector is booming, and its businesses are going global fast. But there’s a hidden cost: every currency conversion, transfer, and foreign card fee quietly erodes margins — and many travel businesses lose 3–5% of revenue before they’ve even served a customer.

This is the “multi-currency squeeze,” and it’s exactly what Airwallex, a global platform for multi-currency accounts, payments, and FX, was built to solve — turning financial infrastructure from a back-office cost into a competitive advantage that protects margins on every booking.

We spoke with Nghiep Le, Senior Manager and VN Commercial Lead at Airwallex. He explains the double conversion trap, how Global Accounts let travel businesses bank like a local in 20+ currencies, and how upgrading your financial stack can provide a real competitive edge.

Nghiep Le, Senior Manager and VN Commercial Lead at Airwallex. Meet the team at Travel Massive Asia Conference (21–22 August) and HorexFex Vietnam (20–21 August) in Da Nang.

Multi-Currency Squeeze: Turning Cross-Border Growth Into Higher Margins

Travel Massive: Vietnam’s travel and tourism sector is experiencing massive growth. As businesses look to capture this demand, what is the biggest hidden hurdle they face?

Nghiep Le (Airwallex): As travel businesses scale internationally, they hit a massive friction point — cross-border payment infrastructure.

Right now, a travel operator might receive a booking in USD or EUR, pay their international hotel suppliers in JPY or THB, and cover their local operational costs in VND. Operating across this fragmented, multi-currency environment using traditional banking systems leads to massive margin erosion. We constantly see travel businesses losing up to 3–5% of their revenue simply through hidden FX markups and exorbitant international transfer fees.

The Double Conversion Trap That Makes You Pay Twice

Travel Massive: Why are traditional payment gateways and banks falling short for modern travel agencies and OTAs operating in Vietnam?

Nghiep Le (Airwallex): Traditional systems were not built for the modern, high-volume travel industry. The biggest issue is the “double conversion” trap. For example, if a Vietnamese travel agency uses a domestic gateway to collect payments from a European tourist, the funds are often forcibly converted from EUR to VND at a poor exchange rate. If that agency then needs to pay an airline or supplier in EUR, they have to convert the VND back to EUR.

Additionally, manually processing refunds, managing chargebacks, and reconciling thousands of fragmented transactions creates an absolute nightmare for finance teams in the back office. It creates cash-flow friction that stifles growth.

How Airwallex Global Accounts Let You Bank Like a Local

Travel Massive: How does Airwallex fix these payment headaches for Vietnam’s travel sector?

Nghiep Le (Airwallex): This is exactly why Airwallex exists. We are a global financial platform built to remove the friction from cross-border business. Think of us as your autonomous finance department that gives you local banking capabilities around the world.

Instead of relying on fragmented systems, Airwallex allows Vietnamese travel companies to open Global Accounts. This means you can instantly spin up local bank details in over 20 currencies — like USD, EUR, AUD, and SGD. When an international customer pays you, or an OTA platform settles your funds, you receive it directly in that currency like a local, completely bypassing forced conversions.

Financial Infrastructure: Airwallex provides the ability to collect funds in 20+ currencies locally, avoiding unnecessary FX conversions and gateway fees.

Smarter Payouts With Direct Transfers and Virtual Cards

Travel Massive: How does Airwallex help them manage payouts to global suppliers?

Nghiep Le (Airwallex): Payouts are just as critical as collections. Once you hold those funds in your Airwallex account, you can pay your network of suppliers — whether it’s international hotels, airlines, or local guides — directly from your multi-currency balance.

If you do need to convert currencies, you get access to interbank, market-leading FX rates. We also offer programmable virtual cards. Travel agencies can instantly issue a unique, single-use virtual card for a specific supplier payment. This not only speeds up the payment process and secures the transaction, but it makes tying each supplier payment to a specific customer booking incredibly easy.

View case studies from Airwallex and learn about cost-effective global payouts and virtual cards.

Killing the 3% Foreign Transaction Fee on Ad Spend

Travel Massive: Aside from booking flows, travel companies also spend heavily on marketing and operations. Does Airwallex support this side of the business?

Nghiep Le (Airwallex): Absolutely. To acquire international customers, Vietnamese travel businesses spend heavily on performance marketing across Google, Meta, and OTA networks.

Travel companies can optimize ad spend by issuing corporate cards to pay for Meta, Google, and software in USD to avoid foreign transaction fees.

Using Airwallex’s multi-currency corporate cards, businesses can pay for global ad spend directly from their USD balances without getting hit by the usual 3%+ foreign transaction fees charged by traditional corporate credit cards. It helps teams control their ad spend and drastically optimizes their return on ad spend (ROAS) during peak travel seasons.

How Airwallex Helps Meetup Travel and Aravinda Save Up to 90% on Fees

Travel Massive: Do you have any examples of how this looks in practice for a Vietnamese travel brand?

Nghiep Le (Airwallex): Yes! Take our clients like Meetup Travel or Aravinda Travel. By shifting their high-volume inbound and outbound transfers to Airwallex, they bypassed the heavy fees of domestic gateways. They leverage our Global Accounts to collect B2C and B2B payments frictionlessly, and use our platform for multi-currency payouts.

Meetup Travel is a fast-growing Vietnamese travel company that connects tourists with locals.

The result? They drastically reduced their operational costs and maximized their profit margins on every single international booking. Across our portfolio, we regularly save clients up to 90% on payment fees compared to local alternatives.

Financial Infrastructure Is Your Competitive Advantage

Travel Massive: What is the main takeaway you want readers to leave with?

Nghiep Le (Airwallex): My main message is this: you shouldn’t have to sacrifice your hard-earned margins just to operate globally. As Vietnam’s tourism sector scales, upgrading your financial infrastructure is no longer just a “nice to have” — it’s a competitive advantage. If you want to stop losing money to FX markups, automate your reconciliation, and focus on delivering incredible travel experiences, come speak to the Airwallex team today.

—  Thanks, Nghiep Le, for sharing your insights!

Ready to stop losing margins to hidden FX fees? Sign up for Airwallex and start collecting in 20+ currencies, paying suppliers directly, and keeping more of every booking.

A big thank you to Nghiep Le and Airwallex for joining us. To dive into case studies and learn how Airwallex can help your travel business protect margins and scale globally, visit airwallex.com — or come meet the team at the Travel Massive Asia Conference on August 21–22.

Airwallex is the leading global financial platform helping travel businesses, from OTAs to local DMCs, scale across borders without losing their margins to hidden banking fees. Travel companies can open accounts in 20+ currencies to collect from international tourists, then use those balances to pay global suppliers via direct transfers or virtual cards. By automating reconciliation and optimizing FX, Airwallex helps the tourism sector maximize profit on every booking.