I stayed in four hotels in 10 days. Here’s my report card.
Recently, I did one of those crazy city hops – going from Hong Kong to Seoul to Bangkok and Saigon in 10 days. In the process, I stayed in four hotels that, to me, capture the diversity of hospitality in Asia and how the industry's changed, and is evolving.Hotel ICON, Hong Kong This is a city know [...]
Local gladiators gear up for battle in South Korea travel market
When asked to describe the state of the Korean online travel market in an image, Min Yoon, CEO of TideSquare, shared an image of a gladiator scene from ancient Rome much to the amusement of the audience gathered for the first WIT Seoul on March 25.He called it “super competitive” and that things [...]
“Safe travels” is the greeting for the new normal
Over dinner in Bangkok, while drooling over the best crab angel hair pasta ever at Il Bolognese, our conversation inevitably moved to travel. The three of us, all working in the travel industry, had flown in from different places, one from Taipei, one from India and myself from Singapore via Hong Ko [...]
By all means, pursue direct but learn to milk those distribution partnerships
No hotel is an island, especially in distribution, and once you accept that fact then the wisest approach to take is to then find the right distributors who can give you the most value.That was the general consensus of hoteliers speaking at WIT Hospitality. Puneet Mahindroo, corporate director of re [...]
Letter from Seoul: Deciphering the puzzle that is South Korea’s online travel
If there’s one country in Asia that has been successful in exporting its pop culture, it’s South Korea. Remember Psy and Gangnam Style that took the world by storm? Well, before and after him, there was and is K-pop.K-soaps are huge and getting huger. There are fans from Bhutan to New York. And [...]
Addicted to change, the stuff of startups who can also stuff it up
This is the longest stint I’ve not been travelling since I started WIT 12 years ago. Two solid months on the ground – and it’s been wonderful, I feel like I’ve kinda settled into myself .Travel is not necessarily about movement, it can be mental. And my mind has certainly done a lot of trave [...]
Hoshino’s mission – building ryokans everywhere and championing family businesses
Yoshiharu Hoshino, who owns and runs Hoshino Resorts in Japan, a fourth generation family business, has two dreams. One, to see a day when there’ll be Japanese-style hotels (ryokans) everywhere just as there are sushi bars and two, to write a book about family business management. In this intervie [...]
Stories that go beneath the armour to get under your skin
As someone who tries to exercise regularly, I’ve watched sporting brands come, go and come back, and I’ve watched them expand their space. Today, sports wear is everyday wear.New Balance is an example of a brand that’s made a comeback. Once it made only good running shoes, now it makes shoes t [...]
My four lessons learnt from watching CODE
Last night, I caught a private screening of CODE: Debugging The Gender Code, at The Projector, a cool new movie space booked by Expedia to mark a week of activities around International Women’s Day. It was hosted by Britta Wilson, vice president global diversity and inclusion.The documentary, made [...]
Women – not just one day but everyday
I’ve been getting lots of reminders that today is International Women’s Day – lots of press releases from companies talking about women and how important the feminine sex is to them. TripAdvisor releasing a study that Asian women take the lead in travel decision making; Accor Hotels issuing a [...]
