[INTERVIEW] Former Auction founder brings AI, decades of travel data to new app

Oh Hyuk, founder of Auction and CEO of Les Vacances, says his new AI-assisted travel app Vacance is designed to generate itineraries, flight and lodging suggestions, and verified travel guides. He said the app focuses on a single travel problem and uses checked data to avoid fabricated facts. Vacance was unveiled this month and is built on more than two decades of travel data.

Les Vacances says Vacance uses four tech engines to build daily routes, check real-time local conditions, update guides automatically, and personalize recommendations.

The app is built on 23 years of collected data, including 656 guidebooks and 83 specialized museum catalogs.

Users can access Korean audio guides and digital catalogs for 77 major global art venues, including the Louvre Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Oh said the service will rely on affiliate booking commissions, targeted business-to-business travel advertising, and custom tour packages to stay free for users.

Published Sep 27, 2026 7:00 am KST

A screenshot of the Vacance travel app / capture from the app

Oh Hyuk, CEO of travel platform company Les Vacances / Courtesy of Oh Hyuk

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.

A screenshot of the Vacance travel app shows popular global destinations and tailored travel features for users. Courtesy of Les Vacances

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."

Auction创始人兼Les Vacances首席执行官Oh Hyuk表示，他新推出的AI辅助旅行应用Vacance旨在生成行程安排、航班和住宿建议以及经过验证的旅行指南。他表示，该应用专注于解决单一的旅行问题，并使用经过核实的数据以避免虚假信息。Vacance于本月发布，其开发基于二十多年的旅行数据。

Les Vacances 表示，Vacance 使用四个技术引擎来构建每日路线、检查实时当地情况、自动更新指南和个性化推荐。

该应用程序基于 23 年收集的数据构建而成，其中包括 656 本指南和 83 个专业博物馆目录。

用户可以访问 77 个全球主要艺术场所的韩语语音导览和数字目录，其中包括卢浮宫博物馆和大都会艺术博物馆。

Oh 表示，该服务将依靠联盟预订佣金、有针对性的企业对企业旅行广告和定制旅游套餐来保持对用户的免费使用。

发布于2026年9月27日 上午7:00（韩国标准时间）

Vacance旅行应用程序的屏幕截图/从应用程序中截取的屏幕截图

旅游平台公司 Les Vacances 的首席执行官 Oh Hyuk / 图片由 Oh Hyuk 提供

计划今年秋天和家人一起去大阪旅行吗？那可能意味着要花几个小时预订机票和住宿，并提前列出旅行目的地清单。

一款新的旅行应用程序旨在简化这一过程。

韩国本土旅游公司 Les Vacances 的首席执行官 Oh Hyuk，同时也是韩国首个电子商务平台 Auction（成立于 1998 年）的创始人，如今又在旅游业中迎接新的挑战，推出了人工智能 (AI) 辅助旅游平台 Vacance。

该应用会根据旅行者的行程安排生成路线。用户还可以在同一应用内查看航班和住宿推荐。

这款本月发布的应用程序旨在彻底改变人们探索世界的方式。它结合了Les Vacances二十多年来积累的专有技术和人工验证的旅行数据，使其功能远不止于简单的行程生成。

在最近接受《韩国时报》采访时，这位资深开发者解释了他的应用程序如何通过排除不准确的旅行信息而脱颖而出。

“通用人工智能试图回答所有问题，但我们专注于旅行这一单一问题，”Oh说道。“旅行信息错误会给旅行者造成金钱和时间的损失。我们不让系统猜测缺失的细节，而是将营业时间和价格等实际数据与我们经过验证的数据库进行比对，从根本上杜绝了虚假信息的存在。”

该应用程序依靠四个特殊的技术引擎协同工作，以构建真实的日常路线、检查实时当地情况、自动更新指南并根据用户偏好定制推荐内容。

该系统基于Les Vacances 23年来收集的大量数据构建而成，其中包括656本旅游指南和83本专业博物馆目录。用户可以免费访问77个全球主要艺术场所的韩语语音导览和数字目录，其中包括巴黎卢浮宫和纽约大都会艺术博物馆。

Les Vacances 旅行应用程序的屏幕截图显示了热门​​全球目的地和为用户量身定制的旅行功能。图片由 Les Vacances 提供。

为了在不向用户收费的情况下维持这种模式的可持续性，Vacance 依靠联盟预订佣金、有针对性的企业对企业旅行广告以及当地入境旅行社创建的定制旅游套餐。

Oh 认为，由于航空和移动技术领域的最新变化，存在着巨大的市场机会。

“免费机上Wi-Fi已经成为现实。大韩航空和韩亚航空已于2026年9月15日开始提供这项服务，”Oh指出。“随着折叠屏智能手机的普及，长途飞行超过10小时的旅客会更倾向于浏览丰富的目的地内容，而不仅仅是观看流媒体电影。我们正致力于通过Vacance平台，满足旅客对数字化机上体验的需求。”

对于 Oh 而言，将这项技术推向市场标志着他漫长职业生涯的巅峰，而他的职业生涯以不懈的技术适应和个人韧性为标志。

在带领 Auction 完成 Kosdaq 上市并于 2001 年被 eBay 收购后，Oh 在菲律宾待了十多年。

在菲律宾经营企业养家糊口的同时，他通过开发企业软件和研究大数据和机器学习，不断保持自己的技术技能，常常熬夜学习。

即使在 2024 年经历了一场严重的医疗危机，导致该应用程序的发布被推迟之后，他仍然以全新的专注度重返工作岗位。

“如果说 Auction 将人们与产品连接起来，那么 Vacance 则将人们与世界连接起来，”Oh 说。“我明年二月就正式成为退休人员了，但我仍然每周工作超过 100 小时。对于开发者来说，没有退休年龄，我的目标是继续打造最好的旅行指南。”