Interest in Myanmar on the rise
TripAdvisor revealed that travellers have shown significantly more interest in Myanmar as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi won a parliamentary seat in the country's by-elections in April.There was a sharp rise in travellers’ searches on Myanmar by 70% across TripAdvisor branded sites [...]
RajaKamar banks on call centre and new focus to make it big
So that there is no doubt about what it does and what it aims to stand for, the new branding of rajakamar.com states it clearly – the “Indonesian hotel expert”. And now it is ready to shout about it in a major marketing drive that will start June 1. CEO Scott Blume told WIT, “This refle [...]
Putting air fight behind it, MakeMyTrip ramps up push across Asia
The recent scuffle between airlines and OTAs in India over the latter’s use of “opaque fare schemes” merely serves to highlight the ongoing tussle between the two parties over control of distribution.For a period of two to three weeks in April, Jet Airways and InDiGo withdrew inventory from a [...]
All-Star OTA panel takes the spotlight at WIT Japan
Picture shows from left: Wilfred Fan, Director North Asia, Agoda; Johan Svanstrom, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Hotels.com; Dan Lynn, CEO, AAE Travel (AirAsiaExpedia), Masabumi Mori, IKYU.com; Suguru Tomizuka, Recruit (Jalan); Toshiyuki Imai, JTB (i.JTB) and Masashi Okatake, Rakuten Travel. Co [...]
Abacus Smartprice offers expanded net fare content
The new Abacus SmartPrice now offers 20,000 Abacus connected agents across Asia Pacific access to more than five million origin and destination net fares. The number of net fares, which grew 30% year-on-year, is testament to the increasingly competitive state of the travel industry today, said A [...]
Wego invests in Valadoo to deepen reach in Indonesia
Wego continues its march to claim its position as Asia Pacific's leading travel metasearch company by making a strategic investment in Valadoo, an Indonesia-based social commerce travel business that provides its members with a curated selection of unique, discounted travel offers and getaways ta [...]
Low cost entry, great content – reach up for the sunrise, Japan urged
It was rather fitting that I left Japan yesterday on a beautiful Sunday spring evening. A golden sun had set on the Rainbow Bridge, linking Tokyo city and Odaiba island, and you could almost feel the onset of summer, giving the promise of sunnier and sunneir days ahead.We wrapped up our first WIT J [...]
New industry study calls for fundamental rethink of airport ecosystem
"Reinventing the Airport Ecosystem" reveals how airports could adopt mini-city, walkway, bus station and shopping mall operating models to meet consumer demands and drive non-aviation revenue.This new industry sudy by Amadeus also identifies consumer frustrations with today‟s airport experience [...]
Location-based services way to go
Mobile was of course talked about at the recent Abacus underground event in Bangkok - the key point being that location-based services will become critical.These data points from Christian Cadeo, head of mobile, South-east Asia of Google.One in three searches have local intent and that includes:• [...]
It’s time for tourism in ASEAN to grow up
Willem Niemeijer (pictured below right),
CEO and co-founder of the
Khiri Travel Group, Thailand shares his thoughts on the direction the ASEAN tourism industry should take to realise its full potential. We reproduce his full blog below:The tourism debate at the World Economic Forum on Eas [...]
