YTL Hotels’ Luke Hurford on the hotel owners’ perspective on distribution and branding
As general manager of Niseko Village from 2007 to 2009, Luke Hurford used to look after family members of YTL Hotels when they stayed at the integrated resort, then managed by Hilton.
So when YTL Hotels acquired the resort from Citigroup Principle, which in turn bought it from Prince Hotels in [...]
Top 3 Lessons of 2019, Part 1
It being such a pivotal year, we asked industry
leaders to reflect on the 12 months past and share their top three lessons with
which to enter 2020. What are yours?
Stephan Ekbergh, CEO, Travelstart
1. No Guts No Glory
Barry Diller fired
Mark Okerstrom due to different views on the fut [...]
From online gaming to car rentals, Barry makes focus his big bet at CarTrawler
For the last 18 years, prior to taking up the reins at CarTrawler in April 2018, Cormac Barry worked in online gaming, being part of the team that set up paddypower.com, the Irish bookmaker which offers sports betting, online poker, online bingo, online casino and online games.
His first impres [...]
Expedia’s Bhogaraju envisions a future in hospitality when “everybody can be a revenue manager”
Vivek Bhogaraju
is on a mission – he wants to democratise revenue management so that “everybody
can be a revenue manager”.
The director of revenue management platform for Expedia Group believes that with advances in AI, overall data processing power and data sets – “there are over 20, [...]
Paco Rüter on why Amadeus’ hospitality quest is more daunting than a hike in the Arctic
For leisure, Francisco (Paco) Pérez-Lozao Rüter, president, hospitality, Amadeus IT Group, goes on hikes across the Arctic, above the Circle. He’s trudged through thick layers of snow, scaled mountains with deep crevasses and has encountered real dangers including being caught in an avalanche w [...]
Reck on how GetYourGuide is more entertainment, less OTA and why the future belongs to content creators
Johannes Reck, CEO and co-founder of GetYourGuide, remembers his first Phocuswright 10 years ago when he had to make about 150 pitches and “everyone was intrigued by our new concept”.
“This year, it feels like the OTA was yesterday’s game and that in-destination has gone from side topic [...]
From UK to Malta and Paris, a Europe in turmoil and aviation under pressure
In the UK, the media was full of Brexit uncertainty, a longer running and more dramatic story than the Netflix series, “The Crown”. Who needs historical dramas when one is unfolding right before your every eyes?
After a few days in Cardiff, we flew onto Malta, straight into the country’s w [...]
Expedia: What went wrong? Lessons to reflect on
It’s interesting that at Phocuswright last month, I was having a conversation with a senior leader in online travel about the changes going on at Expedia Group.
I had just come from Explore ’19, the Expedia conference
which, for the first time charged delegates about US$500 to attend, and j [...]
Okerstrom and Pickerill leave Expedia, Diller cites disagreement on strategy
Expedia Group has announced the resignation of Mark Okerstrom as CEO and a member of the Board of Directors and CFO Alan Pickerill, effective immediately, with chairman Barry Diller citing disagreement between board and senior management on strategy.
The move comes barely a month after Expedia
[...]
Mystifly lets go of China, refocuses on its roots of value creation, not just competing on price
After a rough start to the year, which saw it let go the China Business Team, Mystifly is back on track doing what it does best – “being an intermediary business that creates value for its partners”, said CEO Rajeev Kumar.
“Sometimes you think maybe there’s a better way, and you say, R [...]
