Local OTAs rule in Japan
Online travel agencies (OTAs) lead all travel categories in terms of monthly unique visitors, attracting more than twice as many visitors as airline websites, the most popular supplier website category. According to PhoCusWright's Japan Online Travel Traffic Report (a Global and Asia Pacific Edi [...]
Yes, I can – social media experiment traveller survives in Singapore
So it’s been proven, man can live on social media alone. Well, at least, in Singapore he did. Okay, it's hardly Survivor stuff but hey, it's still worthy of an adventure worth sharing.Armed with no money, just the new Nokia Lumia, and a backpack containing 10 survival items, Parisian Martin Pasqu [...]
Armed with funds and tech know-how, SilverNeedle out to build NEXT Gen hotel
Did you know that Silver Needle is a rare white Chinese tea that’s harvested over a two-week period every year? Well, I didn’t know that and neither did Bill Black, I suspect, until he started researching for a name that would infer a sense of welcome for the new hospitality company that he’ [...]
Making Social Media An Asset To Your Hotel, Part 1
The first in a series of articles by Brand Karma on Making Social Media an Asset to Your Hotel. Over the next few weeks, we’ll share our learnings on how social media can benefit the various departments and stakeholders at a hotel or hospitality firm, and present practical ideas for how it can [...]
Hotels in Malaysia jumping onto social media for engagement
With more than 12.2 million members on Facebook – that's a 47% penetration of its population – Malaysia is no laggard when it comes to embracing social media. Currently ranked at 17th place among Facebook countries, it is seeing fast growth – in the last month alone, numbers jumped by almost h [...]
Reservations “on the go” with GetThere Mobile
Global technology company, GetThere, has added new capabilities to its mobile offering, giving travellers the ability to make air reservations with their smartphones (iPhone, Blackberry and Android) within company policy and preferences for all carriers in the global distribution systems (GDS).G [...]
Revenues jump 50% in MakeMyTrip’s fiscal third quarter
India’s leading OTA MakeMyTrip continues to post gains in revenues and profit. Here are the financial highlights of its unaudited financial and operating results for its fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2011.Financial Highlights
• Revenue rose 50.3% (67.6% in constant currency) yoy to $53 [...]
Wego brings local travel search to Philippines
Asia's travel metasearch website, Wego, has launched a dedicated site for the Philippines - Wego Philippines – that enables travellers to find the cheapest flights and the best accommodation from across the market with just a few clicks online.The site says this will help travellers save hund [...]
Is the fun over? ‘This is the year of government regulation’
I left this morning's opening session of Social Media Week Singapore with the distinct feeling that we may have had our fun in the sun as far as social media is concerned and now it’s time for the parents to come spoil the party.With Twitter planning to allow country-specific censorship of twe [...]
Ok, wifi issue tackled, time to wash other dirty laundry in public
On January 1, the Dusit group of hotels freed up its wifi across all properties. Every guest now gets a user name and password and hey presto, you are in. It works per device but I suspect soon one login will get you across multiple devices.Dusit is only doing what’s inevitable – Shangri-La Hot [...]
