Kiwi legends: What fear, wonder and connection have in common
Five leaders of some of New Zealand’s most recognisable tourism brands – ski fields, jet boats, bungy jumping, conservation cruises and Māori-owned experiences – sat down with WiT founder Yeoh Siew Hoon to unpack what actually makes an experience iconic. The consensus, delivered from five ver [...]
Guardians of place: Lee Ann Muntz on culturalising commerce, not commercialising culture
A couple of months before my coffee chat with Lee Ann Muntz, a board member of the Māori Tourism Board, a line she had said in the Zoom call had stuck with me. “We don’t commercialise culture. We culturalise commerce.”
I wanted to get deeper into that during our conversation. But first, I wa [...]
Serko’s Darrin Grafton: “It’s open season right now in corporate travel”
To introduce Serko’s co-founder and CEO, Darrin Grafton, in a way that would summarise this Kiwi entrepreneur’s nearly-four-decade journey to trying to solve corporate travel’s pain points, I prompted AI.
The result – that he runs Serko “like a jazz band,” part CEO, part roadie, “10 [...]
The secrets to mastering social and commerce in the age of AI
A panel at WiT Queenstown representing Klook, Google and Fabulate shares tips and insights on what’s working and what’s not
Social and AI have increasingly become the means by which travellers discover places and things to do – and the panellists at WiT Queenstown – Marcus Yong of Klook, B [...]
The experience surge: When singular obsessions become the product
What’s your unique obsession? That was the question Jacinta Lim, co-founder and CEO of Seek Sophie, asked the audience at WiT Indie when she moderated the session on “The Experience Surge”.
It was a perfect set-up for a panel whose three guests have each done exactly that – built business [...]
Full cycle: Hermione Joye on 12 years in Asia travel
In the Chinese calendar, 12 years is a full cycle – every animal has had its turn, and you’re back where you started. Well, Hermione Joye, who has just stepped down as Google’s Head of Travel, APAC, has spent exactly a dozen years in the region and as someone born in the Year of the Rat, she l [...]
Agoda’s Tim Hughes on online travel’s broken promise and AI’s “Reddit” dilemma
Twenty-five years and, by his own count, five completely different versions of Agoda later, Agoda’s Timothy Hughes sat down at WiT Queenstown to talk about why online travel never quite delivered on its oldest promise, and why the fix for AI’s travel-advice problem might be sitting in a small co [...]
The next transformation: Inside Ascott’s agentic AI leap of faith
Chief Commercial Officer Tan Bee Leng on the mindset shift that took the company from owner to operator – and the one she says is even bigger
Ask Tan Bee Leng, chief commercial officer of Ascott, what her immediate challenge is and her answer was not what I had expected.
“Parity,” she says [...]
The reluctant author who sets himself on fire, again and again
New book, new AI-native app, new home – ixigo’s Rajnish Kumar on the next fire trial for travel
Rajnish Kumar didn’t want to write a book. In fact, for eight years, he actively resisted one, he told me when we met over coffee in Singapore, his new home after moving here from Malaga. (We’ll [...]
Young Focus: Building the long road out of Smokey Mountain, Philippines
Young Focus Foundation is WiT For Good’s 2026 beneficiary. Since 2008, WiT For Good has raised nearly $1 million for women and children across Asia.
Can you recall a moment that changed your life? For Paul van Wijgerden, living in Amsterdam at the time as a young man in the 1980s, that moment wa [...]
