OpenAI’s “Operator” and DeepSeek: Marking two auspicious moments in AI
Year of Snake heralds “the biggest travel shift” and “the biggest shift in AI”
Forget about sliding into the Lunar New Year tomorrow – the snake is leaping into the next era in Artificial Intelligence that signals the beginning of a shift in consumer behaviour as to how they book travel, [...]
Slow and slithery into the New Lunar Year: Navigating the “firehose” of changes
At the Lunar New Year celebrations hosted by Sentosa Development Corporation this week, I noticed the words “spring into prosperity” on the screen, right next to an animated image of a snake.
I suppose the word “spring” works better than “slither” – the latter doesn’t quite convey [...]
From “self-destruction” to successful exit: How Brett Henry turned MG Group around
Singular mission to build world’s best B2B hospitality marketplace amid Asian Century
Fresh from a successful exit in which he engineered the sale of Indonesia's MG Group to Creador, a South-east Asia private equity firm earlier this month, Brett Henry, president director and CEO, is a man with a [...]
From Mallorca to the world: How Hotel Treats, nurtured by two couples, is going places with day experiences
Every startup has an interesting back story and Hotel Treats, the Scaleup Winner (People’s Choice) of the Global Startup Pitch 2024, is no exception.
It was founded seven years ago by two couples, who didn’t even meet in person until 18 months after starting the business. “We did everything [...]
Pass the “mala” please: Asia demand for China travel surges
Recently, a headline in Bloomberg, “China’s Biggest-Ever Bid For Foreign Tourists Is Falling Flat”, caught my eye.
It reported that despite the extension of visa-free entry access to 38 countries, “the influx of foreign tourists and the billions of dollars in spending they could have brou [...]
Your Guide to 2025 – Problems to be fixed and trends no one is talking about yet
Happy new year. Everyone had a good break, all ready to take on the new year, whatever it may bring?
The good news is, travel is alive and well. All over the world, people were going places, experiencing new adventures and finding escape in new scapes and climes while the work world hibernated f [...]
Letter from Penang: Some repetitive tasks should not be replaced by AI
When Eric Chong of Green Acres, Penang, suggested we spend a morning harvesting cloves, I jumped at the chance to detach from the wired world – if only for a little while. It wasn’t just for me, though. I was also looking for something to get two Gen Alpha kids out of their YouTube bubble and in [...]
Kayak’s Steve Hafner likens travel search to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Twenty years after founding Kayak with Paul English, Steve Hafner remains resolute that there is a future for travel search, even while acknowledging the growth limitations due to the dominance of Google in search and traffic acquisition.“People need a place to compare prices,” he said in an exe [...]
Takaya Shinozuka: Disrupting Japan’s travel tech with punk rock spirit
In the world of Japanese travel startups, Takaya Shinozuka stands out. The founder and CEO of Reiwa Travel, Shinozuka is not only reshaping the travel tech landscape in Japan but also embodying a spirit of rebellion and innovation inspired by his punk rock roots.
Speaking at WiT Seoul, the entrep [...]
Trailblazing travel tech in Korea: The Journeys of Donggun Lee and Jiha Jung
In the world of Korean travel tech, two entrepreneurs – Donggun Lee, the visionary founder of MyRealTrip, and Jiha Jung, the driving force behind Tripbtoz.
Lee, who won the WiT Startup Pitch in Japan in 2014, started MyRealTrip in 2012, using tours and activities as an entry point. Jung, who wo [...]
