Letter from Las Vegas: In the land of giants, welcome to the growing world of Expedia
I am sitting in the front row, getting ready for the start of the Expedia Partner Conference 2015 at the Bellagio, Las Vegas.There couldn’t be a more appropriate place for a meeting by this giant of giants in travel. Las Vegas is a place where everything is bigger than big, and size is everything. [...]
We shouldn’t stop travelling but we should ask, what if something goes wrong?
I don’t know if it was this post about a writer whose father died in a house rented on Airbnb that moved me and got me thinking – or if it was the terrorist attacks in Paris, or that bomb that downed a Russian jet, or the terrorist alert in Bali, but there’s no denying we live in frightening t [...]
US$500m new wings to fly for Tuniu, Chinese outbound still powering on
The US$500 million investment to be made by HNA Tourism into Tuniu, the Chinese online leisure travel company, will give Tuniu wings to fly and, more importantly, “greatly help us when we are organising our own package tours”.Conor Yang, CFO of Tuniu, told WIT that HNA’s ownership of 12 differ [...]
The more travel consolidates, the more freedom for differentiation
No sooner had I uttered the word “consolidation” then another piece of news arrived in my inbox. This time, Sabre Hospitality Solutions buying the Trust Group of companies which include Trust International, Nexus and InnLink for US$154 million.The deal, to be finalised early next year, immediate [...]
Peach wants to be Muji or Uniqlo of airlines as it champions Japan inbound
Peach CEO Shinichi Inoue wants his airline to become the Muji or Uniqlo of aviation. Accepting the Low Cost Airline of the Year award at the CAPA Asian Aviation Summit on Monday night, Inoue said with those two brands, you don’t think of them as where they come from but as global household names.T [...]
The Lion king’s epic journey from keyboards and cakes to CAPA Legend
Things could have turned out very differently for Rusdi Kirana, recipient of the CAPA Legends Award 2015 if he had listened to a official from the Transportation Ministry when he first applied for a licence to start Lion Air.The advice he got was to start a condom factory instead. “If I had listen [...]
Sabre buys Trust Group to boost leadership in hospitality
Consolidation continues – Sabre Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the Trust Group of Companies which include Trust International, InnLink and Nexus.“Acquiring the Trust Group is consistent with our stated goal of building on Sabre Hospitality Solutions’ global lead [...]
As travel consolidates, welcome to the land of giants and specialists
Marriott buys Starwood; Accor in talks with Fairmont; Expedia nabs HomeAway – what’s next as the big gets bigger? Marriott buys Starwood. It came probably in a tweet, a Facebook post or a LinkedIn update. Just three words which mean a lot. A heck of a lot.In fact, you could say, in travel indust [...]
Letter from London: Bacharach, Shakespeare and Southwark reimagined
In London, I caught the musical, “Close To You: Bacharach Reimagined”. Written by young Canadian artiste, Kyle Riabko, it’s a tribute to one of pop music’s most celebrated and prolific songwriters and while I normally eschew musical medleys, Riabko’s clever and contemporary arrangement and [...]
Letter from inside a Tesla: Nerds love it, women will love it, what’s not to love?
I am not big into cars but even I know the future when I see it.
My first encounter with a Tesla was about three years ago when Joe Nguyen of comScore said he wanted to show me his latest gadget and took me for a drive in one of the first few models of the electric car invented by Elon Musk.
We co [...]
