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 [...]
Letter from County Wicklow: Like roses in Ireland, Asia is blooming
On the drive from Dublin airport – minus my baggage – I asked the driver if County Wicklow was where the water came from to make Guinness.He laughed and said, “The things tourists believe.”Thing is, it does take a certain suspension of disbelief to travel. That just the day before I had been [...]
How Stone saw the light and decided to bring it home to Uluru
“There’s something in today’s society that draws people to personal experiences more,” says Ray Stone as he explains why creating experiences such as the “Field of Light” exhibition in Australia’s most sacred place are key to drawing in more visitors to destinations.It was four years a [...]
For Asia, the real story is only just beginning
Richie is a 27-year-old orang utan living in the Semenggoh Wildlife Reserve of Sarawak. Philip Yong, CEO of Borneo Adventure, found him living in a cage as a baby, paid to free him and now he’s hanging out at the sanctuary, which rehabilitates apes and returns them to the wild.Obviously Richie is [...]
Blood moons, baristas and rebooting your world
The idea of “Reboot” came to me while I was on Samui island, relaxing in a private villa by the beach. It was the weekend after WIT 2014 had just ended and this was my annual retreat to unwind.We had just marked “Little Big 10”, the first WIT after the acquisition by Northstar Travel Media. [...]
Stick to your “loyalty machines”, it’s a shark-eat-shark world out there
Amadeus’ distribution chief Holger Taubmann speaks to WIT about “loyalty machines”, Lufthansa’s Direct Connect strategy, RyanAir’s Amazonian ambitions, Accor Marketplace’s aspirations and swimming with the big sharks.For all the talk about direct distribution, and suppliers wanting to go [...]
The “reboot” of Alan Joyce and Qantas: How an Irish working class lad became high-flying executive
If ever there’s a reboot story, it is that of Alan Joyce, CEO of Qantas, personally and how he led and engineered the biggest airline turnaround possibly in the history of aviation.During the CAPA Aviation Awards night in Helsinki, of which I was the emcee, Joyce picked up both the Airline Turnaro [...]
Letter to Jukka: The lost art of waiting and conversations
Finland’s always been on my list of places to visit. One main reason is that when I was about 10, I started a correspondence with a Finnish boy, which lasted a few years.Those were the days before you could just click and make a friend. I can’t quite recall how we met but I think it was from one [...]
