Letter from the skies: The Chinese are coming, so is AI on steroids – hello, 2023
Let's welcome back Chinese travellers with empathy, and brace for the AI revolution to come
I AM writing this at 15,000 feet, onboard an ATR 72-500 on a Firefly flight between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Firefly, a subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines, has carved out a nice little niche for itself on on [...]
Letter from Thailand: Hilltribes, elephants, Michelin dining and weed make for a heady concoction
THE kids had been waiting from 7am. They were excited to meet the “foreigners” whom they heard were bringing snacks and winter jackets and their teachers, Kru Prueng and Kru Nim, had told them they’d soon have fresh supplies for the new school year.
We had started out at 8am from Lisu Lodge [...]
Letter from Tucson: Desert scapes and tastes, boneyard and beauty of flight
THE night before I left for Tucson, I had my first experience of an NBA match between the Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns. Of course, before this, I knew next to nothing about the teams, players and not much about the game.
I mean, I had tried to play basketball in school but was relegated [...]
Mobile acceleration changing everything in Asia – stay alert, “the wolves are coming”
Hospitality tech still “messed up”, opportunities abound for chat, social commerce and innovative bundling
The step change in mobile adoption, social, chat as well as the surge in low cost airline activity in the region will drive changes in the Asia Pacific travel market for years to come, a p [...]
How an early nomad’s life shaped Steve Hafner, and how he sees talent, tech and human imagination
“With five mouths to feed, I got to stick around”
From references to Hugh Hefner to learning from his five daughters and how to ace media interviews, this interview with Steve Hafner, CEO and co-founder of KAYAK, covers it all. That, plus how the charismatic travel leader views the new world of [...]
Riding the Covid wave: Americas slowing down, Asia’s still in “sugar rush”
Key takeaways from Phocuswright – worlds apart but some similarities stand out
IN a week’s time, we will enter the last month of 2022. At Scottsdale Quarters, a shopping precinct in Arizona, the malls are already playing Christmas songs. At hotels, both in Phoenix and Tucson, you can see prepar [...]
Letter from Phoenix: Gummies, guacamole and lessons from taxi drivers
After three years away, I was curious to see what Narita airport would look like, compared to Incheon where I had just been two weeks prior. This is one of the slower airports in Asia Pacific to recover – Incheon is number two in recovery after Singapore – and although Japan fully reopened on Oc [...]
Japan, Land of Bargains, beckons while outbound remains muted
Weak yen, absence of China – “an opportunity to change focus”
GIVEN the weakened Japanese yen, the land of the rising sun has become the land of bargains and this will give a further impetus to inbound travel to this most popular of destinations, the audience at WiT Seoul 2022 heard.
Quoti [...]
WiT Seoul 2022: Travel brands jostle for position amid intense competition and consolidation
FROM traditional giants like Hana Tour to local OTAs such as Good Choice, Tidesquare and MyRealTrip, travel brands in South Korea are jostling for position to catch the recovery wave. In the meantime, massive changes have taken place in the market including the accelerated digitisation of consumers [...]
How MyRealTrip executed its way out of the pandemic to emerge stronger
With transactions higher than pre-pandemic, Korean startup invests in five companies, bets on families, longstays and co-working
DONGGUN Lee will always remember September 23, 2022 – that was the day he and his team at MyRealTrip jumped for joy when South Korea announced the full reopening of its [...]
