Posts by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Ancillaries. Anchovies. We asked for choice and we got it
10/01/2012 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
I was having champagne pork ribs at Por Kee Restaurant, Tiong Bahru, with friends one cool, balmy evening in Singapore when a friend started venting his anger at AirAsia. “I used to like them, always fly with them,” he said, sputtering over the ribs which by the way are juicy and tender [...]
Park Hotels’ revamped website enhances customer experience
05/01/2012 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Aesthetically striking in the group’s corporate colours of regal black and grand gold, the website is also user friendly allowing easy navigation with breadcrumb links and a dynamic sitemap. It comprises a corporate microsite, as well as microsites of each of Park Hotel Group’s eight [...]
Why you must concentrate on this
03/01/2012 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
A fresh breeze is rustling the leaves outside my window where I work. Birds are chirping. Traffic is trundling along. It feels like any other day really. But is it? I spent the last two weeks, hiding from today’s space invaders. I did as little work as I could get away with. I spent as li [...]
Excuse me, are you real or not? How AI could change customer service
13/05/2014 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Traditional travel agents have always claimed that their one advantage over online players is their level of customer service – that the human touch is still critical to travel transactions. That is true of course as long as that “human touch” is well trained and knowledgeable but I t [...]
Letter from Tokyo: It’s all happening here as city goes into hyperdrive
14/05/2014 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Got into Tokyo on the red eye from Singapore – landed at Haneda just as the sun rose over the city. I got so excited at immigration that I even engaged in conversation with the officer. “I am so happy I don’t need a visa anymore,” I said, as I handed her my Malaysian passport. � [...]
Japan steps up inbound efforts but faces challenges in catering to foreign tourists
20/05/2014 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
The third WIT Japan opened last week to the personal welcome of a Prime Minister and the beating of drums, heralding what many believe is the rise of a new dawn for the country’s travel industry. In his video message, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (right) told delegates that the Internet had [...]
Recruit wants to liberate small businesses to unleash ‘omotenashi’ globally
20/05/2014 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
More than 50 years ago, in 1960 precisely, the founders of Recruit Holdings saw an opportunity to match students with jobs and thus started the company’s magazine business. In the 1990s, with the rise of the Internet, the company began developing information services for the new media a [...]
Inbound fillip for Japan, online travel boom for South Korea – WIT Japan opens May 16
07/05/2014 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Usually at this time of the year, I’d be fretting about having to get a visa to travel to Japan – the forms to fill, the documents I must secure, the approval process … You cannot imagine what a liberating feeling it is that I no longer have to go through the process since visa regula [...]
Think about mobile differently, don’t make the same mistake as in 1995 – Bellhop wins WIT Indonesia Start-Up
06/05/2014 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
It was interesting to watch the pitches at the WIT Start-Up competition in Indonesia and realise that out of the six who presented, how heavily into mobile they were.  And social – a lot had to do with trip planning using the power of the crowd. I am not sure how the social piece will p [...]
The magic sauce of content creation – keep it you and make it about your audience
30/04/2014 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
       (The WIT Next Content panel - from left, Steve Lai, Jacylnn Seah, Koay Yi Ling, Luke Clark and Turochas Fuad) I remember the first time I saw Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border. This massive body of water just falling over the edge of the cliffs, splashing everywhere an [...]