Digital tourism has become an innovative solution, creating new offers and markets thanks to modern technologies, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital application in tourism business activities is predicted to have many breakthroughs in the future, especially the application of modern technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and robots (RB). The present study, therefore, aims to (1) explore the factors in the future strategy of applying VR, AR, and RB by operators of tourism businesses; (2) measure the importance of the factors discovered in the decisions of executives; (3) propose specific strategies for young generations who wish to choose a career in the tourism sector in the future. Approaches of the present article included (1) Document research (e.g. scientific articles, books, magazines, websites, etc. in English, French, and Vietnamese); (2) Semi-structured interviews with 19 experts who are representatives of researchers, lecturers, or entrepreneurs in the field of tourism in France and Vietnam during the period from December 2021 to January 2022; (3) Online survey questionnaires with 400 operators in the tourism business (including accommodation, transportation, tour-operating/distribution, and destination) in two markets France and Vietnam from February 2022 to August 2022; (4) Field observations at several tourism business establishments in the French and Vietnamese markets during the period from December 2021 to August 2022. The collected primary and secondary research data were then processed by the following methods: (1) Descriptive statistics with SPSS 20.0; (2) Evaluation of the measurement model by using Partial Least Squares thanks to SMARTPLS 3.0 software; (3) Structural Equation Modeling test. Research findings revealed 07 main factors in the future strategy of applying VR, AR, and RB of tourism business operators in descending order of importance: (1) Personalized experiences, and customer satisfaction; (2) Customer retention, and competitiveness; (3) Resource optimization, cost-effectiveness; (4) Revenue generation, business expansion; (5) Information sharing, improved communication; (6) Value co-creation, unique experiences; and (7) Sustainable tourism practices. Based on the actual results of the research, specific strategies aimed at young people who will choose an occupation in the tourism industry in the future have been proposed. Overall, this paper concluded that it is possible that the development of modern technologies is unpredictable, and as always, lack of information is a danger, especially for young people when choosing a job in tourism. Therefore, lifelong learning to master modern technologies is of the utmost importance.

Keywords: digital strategy, tourism business, future application, virtual reality, augmented reality, robot, operator