Trip.com’s Xing Xiong on harnessing age of AI and corporate travel’s moment
When Xing Xiong, Chief Operating Officer of Trip.com Group, took to the stage at its Airline Global Conference in Amsterdam last week, he did so with the perspective of someone who has watched the travel industry and the technology underpinning it transform beyond recognition, and along with it, the [...]
Expedia Group enters agreement to acquire CarTrawler, launches Intelligent Experience Platform
Expedia Group continues on its journey towards becoming an end-to-end B2B marketplace, with the announcement made today at its EXPLORE event in Las Vegas that it has entered into an agreement to acquire CarTrawler, the Ireland-based B2B car rental platform.
The move follows its recent acquisition [...]
Tony Fernandes: The art of never saying no, and never wasting a crisis
Nine years is a long time in aviation. The last time I interviewed Tony Fernandes on a stage in Amsterdam, he had just been named Airline CEO of the Year.
He recounted that moment in 2017 to the audience attending the Trip.com Airline Global Conference in Amsterdam last week. Akbar Al Baker of Qa [...]
How VoiceMap is fighting against the AI tour flood
Sir Stephen Fry and History Hit’s Dan Snow among the “curiously human” tours launched
In a bid to defend itself against the AI commoditisation of audio tours, VoiceMap, founded by South African blogger-turned-entrepreneur Iain Manley 12 years ago, is taking the “curiously human” route and [...]
28 years in the making: How Ten Lifestyle Group finally found its moment
There is a particular kind of founder that the startup world doesn’t celebrate enough – not the one who disrupts an industry overnight and exits in five years, but the one who holds the line for nearly three decades on a vision that the world wasn’t quite ready for yet. Alex Cheatle, CEO and c [...]
Winning hearts, minds and wallets: How AI can serve ASEAN’s underserved travellers
In a world where AI is taking care of what and how, possibly the most important question humans can ask is why – why do we do what we do?
That was the first question moderator and WiT founder Yeoh Siew Hoon posed to the three panellists at the Travel Tech Thursdays event in Kuala Lumpur – Ash [...]
From jetlag to shift work, Timeshifter wants to be your personal circadian rhythm advisor
While it started out as a jet lag app, there is a bigger ambition driving the co-founders – to build a circadian technology platform that impacts overall health and well-being.
It’s early morning in New York but Mickey Beyer-Clausen is looking bright and chirpy, and wearing a hoodie that says [...]
Ten years of Klook: Marcus Yong on growth, AI, and the responsibility of being pan-Asian
He started on Labour Day. May 1. “I still don't know how that happened,” says Marcus Yong, laughing. Ten years later, Klook’s vice president of global marketing is sitting across from me, and the irony of choosing to begin his startup journey on the one day the world takes a break hasn't been [...]
Innovation out of necessity: Why banks are winning traveller engagement in Africa
When Stephan Ekbergh, the Swedish-born founder of Travelstart, compares South African banks to those in his homeland, the verdict is blunt: “When I go back to Sweden, I feel like I'm moving back to the Middle Ages.”
And Michelle Munemo, Standard Bank's Executive Lead for Travel and Head of CV [...]
The Middle East travel market: Resilient, reset, and recalibrating
Three months after the first attack on Iran sent shockwaves through the region, I spoke to four OTA leaders operating across the Middle East to get a read on where things stand. What emerged wasn't a single story but four different ones, shaped by market size, business model, and temperament.
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