Reflecting on the history of online travel while celebrating the future of things to come.
As the world counted down to the year 2000, headlines warned of Y2K chaos — crashing computers, frozen clocks, a world on pause. For Yeoh Siew Hoon, Founder of WiT, David Bowie’s Changes became the soundtrack to that moment. In a BBC interview that same year, Bowie told Jeremy Paxman, “We are at the beginning of something unimaginable and terrifying.” He was speaking about the Internet, but the sentiment resonated deeply with Siew Hoon as a travel journalist in Asia on the brink of a new century.
When the feared digital meltdown never came, Siew Hoon embraced a different kind of disruption. Inspired by the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show’s mantra, “Don’t dream it, be it,” she left the corporate world in 2000, went freelance, adopted a dog named Dylan (“the times, they are a-changing”), published the travel book Around Asia in 1 Hour in 2003, and in 2005, launched the first WiT conference.
Two decades later, what Bowie once called “unimaginable and terrifying” has shaped the most rewarding chapter of her life. That personal and professional journey — from the uncertainty of Y2K to two decades of online travel transformation — is now told in WiT’s new video series, Online Travel in Asia: The Untold Story, which premieres with Chapter 1: Time to Face the Music.
To celebrate 20 years of WiT this year, we’ve launched this new documentary series to not just chronicle the series of extraordinary events that have created a golden era in the Asian travel space, but also shine a light on the people and pioneers who helped shape this robust, thriving, chaotic industry.
We’ll release a few episodes every week, for 3 weeks, each one tackling a different theme around online travel in asia, as told from the frontlines.
Watch Chapters 1 – 4 here:
Chapter 1: Time to Face the Music
Chapter 2: The Beginning of the Beginning
Chapter 2 takes us back to 9/11 — a day that shook the world and unexpectedly accelerated the rise of online travel. Industry pioneers including Rod Cuthbert (Viator), Greg Schulze (Expedia Group), Timothy Hughes (Agoda), and Deep Kalra (MakeMyTrip) share how crises have become turning points for the industry.
From the chaos of grounded flights and jammed phone lines to the slow dawn of mobile, this was the moment the age of online travel truly began — and the outsiders, misfits, and believers seized the wave.
Chapter 3: The Heavy Meta Era
Chapter 3 dives into the “Heavy Meta” era — when metasearch reshaped the region’s travel landscape.
From Kei Shibata’s dial-up-era launch of Travel.jp in Japan, to Qunar’s rise in pre-Olympics China, Wego’s survival pivot to the Middle East, Agoda’s full-stack OTA grind in Thailand, and ixigo’s shift from flights to buses and trains in India — this was the founding wave that defined Asia’s travel tech boom. Packed with founder stories, hard lessons, and market pivots, this is how the region’s biggest names found their place in the global travel industry.
Chapter 4: First Cut is the Deepest
Chapter 4 rewinds to the first WiT in 2005 — then called Wired in Travel until a legal letter forced a rebrand.
Siew Hoon shares the nerves of launching an event in a still-nascent online travel industry. From feeling “overwhelmed” by the wave of expertise, to discovering an industry they didn’t know existed, to swapping stories too outrageous for boardrooms – this was the messy, magical start of a community that would define the next two decades of travel in Asia.
‘Online Travel in Asia: The Untold Story’ is a documentary two decades in the making. It’s a front-row seat to the rise of an industry – how it all began, the people who sparked it, the moments that shaped it, and where it stands today.
But this is just the beginning. The stories that will shape “The Next 20” are still being written.
