Letter from beautiful and vulnerable Bali, just like Nepal: United in travel
Last night, I slept to the sound of the ocean. It was the most blissful night’s sleep I’ve had in a while. Nothing like the sound of waves crashing to the shore to soothe the restless mind.
This morning, I woke to the same sound. Only this time there was laughter floating in the sea breeze.
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WIT Warrior Spotlight: Kathleen Tan – travel will become like going to the cinema
At the WIT Conference last October in Singapore, we recognised 11 individuals whom we felt have had the most influence on the development of online travel in Asia Pacific. This is the first article in a series of interviews profiling our WIT Warriors.
Kathleen Tan came from a retail and music ba [...]
T Fuad: Ahead of the start-up mob and betting on the sharing economy in Asia
There are some people who've just got the start-up gene in their blood and Turochas Fuad, co-founder of travelmob, is one of them. He left a cushy corporate job to start travelmob. He's also been successful at exits – he sold his first start-up 10 years ago in Silicon Valley and last year, he so [...]
Future traveller & future travel agency tribes – let’s take a stab at the future
So it’s very brave of Amadeus to look into the future – 2030 no less – and predict the future traveller tribes. Most of the time, I can’t even figure out what’s going to happen tomorrow which is why I remain a scribe I guess, and not a researcher.
But there’s just so much happening so [...]
Letter from Kuching: The time has come for Sarawak to be discovered, enjoyed and loved
I first visited Kuching when I was a young, bug-eyed reporter and was somehow lucky enough to land a writing assignment for a photography book on Sarawak.
I don’t know why I thought myself qualified to do the job but I’ve never been one to let ignorance stand in the way of endeavours.
Robe [...]
Lessons from building a tours & activities business from scratch
At WIT Middle East in Dubai earlier this month, Tao Tao, COO & co-founder of GetYourGuide, the tour and activities marketplace, sat down for a conversation with Yeoh Siew Hoon, founder of WIT, to talk about mistakes made, lessons learnt and how “the fine line between resolute persistence and u [...]
No lightbulb till 9, now Destinia’s Amuda Goeli clearly sees the light
I suppose we are all a product of our background and experiences and Amuda Goeli, co-founder of Destinia, certainly comes across as an individual who’s very comfortable in his own skin.
Growing up in Aswan, Egypt, he did not see a light bulb till he was nine years old. He laughs at the noti [...]
Letter from Dubai: Lights, sand, fog, the work goes on
It’s 6am Dubai time and outside my room at the Oberoi is a city that never sleeps. By that, I mean, work never stops.
In the darkness of the dawn, I can hear hammering and knocking as men at work continue their labour to build a city that’s been in the making for at least the last two decades [...]
Mobile meet Millennials: Cleartrip bets on mobile to take leap to the top
A year is a long time in online travel and that was quite evident when we returned for our second Middle East edition in Dubai last week.
In a region where 60% of the population are under 30 – a generation that can change its habits overnight – and smartphones are nearly as plentiful as sand in [...]
10 lessons from Singapore, the Start-Up: Learning from Lee Kuan Yew
Like everyone living in Singapore, I spent most of last week reading, listening and learning about the life of Lee Kuan Yew and how he built a nation from scratch. And it made me realise that in many ways, Singapore is like a start-up and the late Mr Lee its founder.
Here are the 10 lessons I fee [...]
