PKFARE, claiming first mover advantage in global race, sets clear path to differentiation
Culture is the critical piece, says Jason Sui
Once operating fairly alone in the global air aggregation and distribution space, Shenzen-based PKFARE now finds itself in increasingly competitive waters as more China-based flight platforms expand their wings beyond their home market.
Said Jason Su [...]
Creation platform, AI chatbot for corporate bookings, payments – Amadeus continues in quest to simplify travel
“In Asia, I sometimes use John Smith, simpler for everyone”: Javier Laforgue
It’s just slightly over a year since this veteran in air distribution moved to Singapore to head up Asia Pacific for Amadeus. He came in at a time of “the renewal of travel” in the region. With the region fully o [...]
Hopper’s APAC B2C team axed amid cuts of 250 jobs
Hopper’s 250 job cuts this week included its entire Asia Pacific B2C team, including its head of Asia, Reno Wang.
In his LinkedIn post, Wang, who said this was the first layoff in his career, said, “I have had the amazing privilege of trailblazing Hopper business into APAC, where we were active [...]
Letter from Samui: Great balls of fire and long live The Human Revolution
Key takeaways from WiT Singapore 2023
I am writing this from Rocky’s, a resort in Samui, a Thai island I haven’t visited in at least a decade. There’ve always been other destination distractions and somehow, Samui had lost its appeal to me – the over-building in Chaweng, the main beach stri [...]
Human touch blended with AR the next frontier in tour storytelling
Fresh from family road trip of Europe, GlobalTix’s Chan ticks off top trends in tours and activities
The human touch blended with Augmented Reality technology in tours is the next frontier in storytelling, believes Chan Chee Chong, CEO and co-founder of the tours and activities technology platfor [...]
With great elasticity, Healy aims to wrap arms around 1,001 hotels from Dubai
Excited about Middle East opportunity, Accor's CCO to focus on revenue management, pricing discipline and distribution partnerships
After 12 years of living in Singapore, a full cycle in the Chinese calendar, Kerry Healy, who took up her new role of (wait for this, it’s a long one) Chief Commerci [...]
Will AI make us less or more human? To be answered next week
“It will force humans to think more about what it is that actually makes us human”
Next week, the WiT Singapore conference will close on our Great Debate with the question, Will AI make us less or more human?
I’ve been mulling over the question for a while and there are days when I believe [...]
An audio tour of Little India, spiced up and augmented with a love story
“New World's End” brings theatre to walking tours
Most people think of Augmented Reality as adding another layer to your mobile device, that is, you point your phone at something and something pops up in your screen, animated and telling you something about what’s in front of you.
To me, [...]
Cultural knowledge cannot be codified – that is travel’s human edge in this revolution
I recently attended the book launch of George Yeo’s “Musings”, the former Singapore Minister of Trade and Industry’s third in a series of essays capturing his thoughts on politics, economics and life.
Held at the Victoria Concert Hall, it was opened by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Kiat [...]
Asia Pacific corporate travel in strong rebound, technology and digitization will drive future
It was a strong start to the GBTA (Global Business Travel Association) Asia Pacific Summit this week in Singapore as the industry body shared data that showed, all things being equal, the slowest recovering region will reach 92% of pre-pandemic levels by year end.
Suzanne Neufang, CEO of GBTA, ca [...]
