Yanolja founder eyes innovation in travel industry with AI

CEO Lee Su-jin

As Yanolja celebrates the 20th anniversary on Wednesday, founder and chief executive officer Lee Su-jin reaffirmed his ambition to make the South Korean travel platform the top travel tech company globally.

“I started Yanolja with a mere 0.1 percent chance of success,” Lee said. “I have no intention of stopping or being satisfied with the status quo. Let’s push forward toward even greater growth.”

Lee made these remarks during Yanolja’s 20th anniversary ceremony that took place on Wednesday at TenX Tower in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province.

During the event, Lee reflected on the company’s 20-year journey of realizing its vision - helping people fulfill their travel dreams.

He started working as a cleaner at lodging facilities to save up money after completing his military service and set up Yanolja in 2005 with just two desks in a friend’s apartment. The company launched Korea’s first mobile lodging app in 2011, introducing innovative services like instant booking that helped Yanolja grow into the country’s top accommodation reservation platform.

The company has since continued its rapid expansion and is now close to hitting 1 trillion won ($688.8 million) in annual revenue.

Lee emphasized that Yanolja should not limit itself to an online platform that simply intermediates accommodations, restaurants, and rental cars, but continue to create meaningful value in the travel and leisure industries instead. His vision is to evolve Yanolja into a B2B platform that aggregates global travel data and provides it to businesses.

To strengthen its B2B platform, Lee highlighted the critical role of artificial intelligence (AI).

“As AI becomes more widespread, the cost and time required for labor will decrease while the money and time spent on leisure will increase,” Lee said. “Yanolja’s growth potential is limitless.”

Yanolja has recently experienced explosive growth in its B2B solutions segment, which serves travel businesses and platforms.

While its enterprise solutions division accounted for only 30 percent of revenue in 2024, it generated 57.6. billion won in operating profit - nearly half of the company’s total profit. Revenue from this segment has more than tripled over the past two years thanks to Yanolja’s AI-driven technology.

The company leverages AI to predict optimal hotel pricing and manage scattered hotel data in an integrated manner. Yanolja counts global hotel chains such as Marriott and Hilton, as well as major online travel agencies such as Booking.com and Trip.com, among its clients.

Lee’s ultimate goal is to integrate all travel-related data between suppliers and consumers into a seamless system.

“Data flow should never be fragmented or disconnected,” Lee said. “By continuously tracking and automating data flow, AI will be able to provide optimal solutions.”

Lee envisions Yanolja as the world’s leading travel tech company.

“Yanolja has secured 2.5 trillion won in cumulative investment, recorded 27 trillion won in gross transaction volume in 2024, and is nearing 1 trillion won in revenue,” Lee said. “With 4,000 team members across 70 offices in 28 countries, Yanolja’s potential is boundless.”