Latin America’s superapp Rappi sticks to its bet on travel
Travel and loyalty are good for stickiness: Guido Becher
It’s interesting to note that while some superapps in Asia such as Grab and Gojek have pulled back from travel, Latin America’s Rappi remains committed to the travel vertical despite the challenging pandemic years.
In fact, Rappi cou [...]
Letter from the Priorat, Catalonia: Listening to the wines, and the silence
To be honest (and I’ve always been told to be wary of people who start their sentences with those three words but in this case, it’s sincere), I had never heard of Priorat until, well, this year when I started planning for my Catalonia holiday.
I had asked ChatGPT to recommend the top three d [...]
Biggest pain point in transition to NDC world is post-booking and servicing: Mystifly
“This moment will reshape the industry,” says CEO Rajeev
As NDC adoption by airlines accelerates, led by American Airlines, intermediaries are struggling to remain relevant as new pain points emerge. Yeoh Siew Hoon catches up with Rajeev Kumar, CEO & co-founder of Mystifly, to find out what [...]
NDC Revolution: Time To Face The Oncoming Train
Sabre’s Mendis on NDC’s momentum, painful transition to new world, AI innovation
For the last eight years or so ever since it was first introduced into the airline vocabulary, the acronym “NDC” has been percolating away in the background, and now, post-pandemic, it looks like it’s coming [...]
Trials & Tribulations of Nigeria: Not for the faint-hearted but vast potential
Travelstart builds new tech to fuel new dreams on back of recovery
You couldn’t pick a more challenging market than Nigeria to build an online travel business – poor economy for starters, 1.6% credit card penetration for another, currency issues etc, etc, – but therein lies the opportunity [...]
Building Meili and Manna: How Bobby Healy wants to end “fiasco of car hire brokering” and change the world of delivery
The one thing you can count on when you speak to Bobby Healy is, he’s a straight shooter. When you ask him why he founded Meili Travel Technology, his new car rental business in direct competition with CarTrawler, the company he helped build over 15 years, his answer, “It was the right thing to [...]
As tours & activities heat up, Go City keeps focus on profitability
Singapore from zero to hero, “people will always travel to cities,” says Jon Owen
Let’s face it. The tours and activities sector is blazing hot again. GetYourGuide’s latest fund raise of $194 million of equity and debt financing, valuing it at nearly $2 billion, was the talk of the town at [...]
Shifting traveller trends: Asia and Middle East make waves in Barcelona
I’ve always felt at home in Spain, almost a sense of déjà vu each time I visit, and it thus felt fitting that I should be bringing the flavours of Asia, as well as the emerging markets of Middle East and Africa into the first Phocuswright Europe in Barcelona. Consider the similarities in our foo [...]
Technekai Global Hospitality Tech Fund sets up in Asia
“Y Combinator of Hospitality” plans $100m fund
Technekai, a global hospitality tech fund based out of Silicon Valley, has set up office in Singapore and is looking to raise $100 million of funding to invest in and accelerate hospitality tech startups in Asia Pacific.
Heading the Technekai [...]
Mini-apps, flagship stores, Rapid API: Travel tech brands build windmills for the future
Wego, Expedia, Alibaba Fliggy share product roadmap
There is a Chinese saying, “When the wind of change blows, some build walls while others build windmills.” Well, travel tech brands around the world have certainly been busy building windmills when travel stopped for the time it did.
During [...]
