Letter from Sydney: Winter’s coming, a battle of Amazonic proportions is looming
Winter in Sydney is very different from the winter portrayed in the Game of Thrones television series but I get the feeling that the competition for online consumers is going to get as brutal and bloody in the next year or so, and travel will be caught up in the quest for the Iron Throne.
The [...]
On the Rocks, Hoshino talks ryokans, minpaku and recognition
I suppose when you work in travel, you shouldn’t be surprised who you run into so when I heard that Hoshino Resorts was having a media lunch in Sydney the week I happened to be in town, I gatecrashed it.
I wanted to catch up with Yoshiharu Hoshino, who wants to take his fourth-generation fa [...]
No goosing around for Air New Zealand as it changes the world map
You should take your business seriously but you shouldn’t take yourself too seriously, that was the key message from Christopher Luxon, CEO Air New Zealand, as he shared how the 77-year-old airline had achieved 15 years of consecutive profitability and 13 years of positive dividends.
Of course, [...]
Jetstar’s bets on digital, data 4 years ago paying off
Jayne Hrdlicka, CEO of Jetstar Group, painted a picture as sunny as the weather outside for her airline at this week’s CAPA Aviation Summit in Sydney.
Opening the two-day conference, she said, “The global economy is in its best shape since the GFC. We are carrying 37 million passengers now, t [...]
Startups in ASEAN: Time to look to China, not US, for lessons
If there was one clear message coming out from investors in the tech space at the Techsauce Global Summit in Bangkok last week, it was – it’s time for startups in Southeast Asia to stop looking to the US for role models; instead they should look to China.
A panel of investors, specialising in [...]
Expedia’s US$350m investment in Traveloka: ASEAN’s first travel unicorn set to fly higher
It’s finally happened – Traveloka, the Indonesian online travel agency, that’s been streaking ahead in the world’s fifth largest domestic market, has received a US$350 million minority investment from Expedia, with analysts saying this values it around US$2 billion, making it Southeast Asia� [...]
Hotel distribution like Whack A Mole game: Expedia’s de Schepper on taking on Asia
When you sign up to work in online travel, you know you are never going to have a quiet moment. This is what Mieke de Schepper, who joined Expedia to manage hotel relationships in Asia Pacific from a career in Philips, has discovered.
“It’s like the game of Whack A Mole we used to play as [...]
Letter from Kuching: Lessons for small earthlings in second cities
Just returned from Kuching and on the AirAsia flight to Singapore, I was reflecting on how the combination of low cost airlines and the web, specifically social media, has changed the fortunes and aspirations of folks living in second cities in Asia.
I hail from a secondary city myself, Penang, a [...]
Letter from Sydney: Chatbots are hot but they are no silver bullet
Travelport Live in Sydney kicked off with two female “robot” dancers wearing suits that were more lit up than a Christmas tree, their robot-like movements a hint of where the discussions at the one-and-a-half day conference would be heading.
Futurist Ross Dawson opened with a br [...]
US$30,000 seed funding awaits winner of WIT Startup Pitch Singapore; call for entries begins
After a successful run at the WIT Japan & North Asia 2017 conference held in Tokyo this June, the WIT Startup Pitch, powered by Travelport, is now on the road to WIT Singapore (Oct 23-25).
This October, another round of hopeful startups will pitch for the grand prize at the WIT Startup Pitch [...]
