Jesper Koll: Scarcity leads to innovation, lessons from Hello Kitty and Astro Boy
Jesper Koll, Senior Advisor, Wisdom Tree Investments, opened his presentation on “Destiny” at WiT Japan with the objection he hears most often: Japan's population is shrinking by nearly 3,000 people every day. How can anyone be bullish?
His counter argument – scarcity is the mother of inven [...]
Tripadvisor to sell TheFork to American Express for $700 million
Transaction highlights the value of Tripadvisor's portfolio and enables greater focus on experiences.
Tripadvisor, Inc. announced it has entered into a put option agreement to sell TheFork, its online restaurant reservation and management platform in Europe, to American Express for $700 million in [...]
The Great Destination Redistribution: Moving tourism from where it is to where it should be
Data, mindsets, resident sentiment and the uncomfortable truth about who really wants redistribution
The question of how to spread tourism more evenly across Japan, away from the overcrowded golden triangle of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka and into the rural towns, regional communities and hidden landscap [...]
Hotels losing to AI. Agents collapsing travel funnel. Video platforms impacting booking.
Trransfer Technologies and LINE GO team up to focus on enterprise travel in Taiwan
Trransfer Technologies, a global B2B ground transportation platform serving corporate travelers across 80+ destinations, has officially launched a partnership with LINE GO, Taiwan's leading MaaS platform, following a [...]
The demand for travel is there. Affordability is what’s broken.
What does it actually take to get more people across Southeast Asia traveling, and is the industry doing enough to make it happen?
Nadia Omer, CEO of AirAsia Move, spoke to WiT about how AI is reshaping the platform while pointing to data hygiene as an essential part of MOVE's process. "We realized [...]
Middle East disruptions and high fuel prices halve airline industry profitability
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released its latest financial outlook for the global airline industry showing a halving of profitability as a result of war-related Middle East disruptions and high fuel prices. The regional landscape, however, is highly differentiated. At the geogr [...]
Toggle tax costing hotels. Wasted ad budgets. Juniper Group acquires DerbySoft. Cover Genius and Traveloka team up.
Cover Genius and Traveloka team up to embed travel protection across APAC
Insurtech Cover Genius has partnered with Southeast Asia's leading travel platform Traveloka to deliver embedded protection products across multiple markets. Australian customers can now access Cancellation Protection — cov [...]
Mastercard and CrescentRating: 245 million Muslim travellers by 2030, with women driving nearly half of arrivals today
Two new reports highlight how responsible, immersive, digital and assured travel experiences are shaping the next phase of Muslim-friendly tourism
Mastercard, in collaboration with CrescentRating, has released two new reports: Halal Travel Trends 2026 and Muslim Women in Travel 2026, examining how [...]
Middle East war leads to 3.4% fall in air passenger demand
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for April 2026 global passenger demand:
Total demand, measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPK), was down -3.4% compared to April 2025. Excluding the Middle East, demand increased by 1.2%. Total capacity, measured in availab [...]
The rise of the ‘perpetual traveller’ creates new opportunities for hotels
The hospitality industry can capitalize on rising frequency, secondary city growth, and deep localization in 2026
Digital travel platform Agoda highlights that the combination of a rising middle class and changing travel habits across Asia is creating new revenue opportunities for the travel and ho [...]
