Kawasaki to champion innovation at Abacus conference
Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist of Apple and author of nine books with the latest being “Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging and Outmarketing Your Competition”, will keynote the 7th Abacus International Conference from October 13-16.Kawakasi, who is also co-foun [...]
Following successful IPO, MakeMyTrip on hunt for acquisitions
Armed with a new and bulging war chest following its successful debut on NASDAQ last week, MakeMyTrip is on the lookout for “strategic acquisitions to boost our leadership position”, founder and CEO Deep Kalra told WIT.India’s biggest OTA launched onto NASDAQ last week, with shares closing [...]
One man’s innovation is another man’s adoption
Kevin May’s post on innovation has got me thinking that maybe one man’s innovation just equals another man’s adoption.See, the biggest lament in the Asian travel space is the slow adoption of technology by traditional travel agents. Most of these family-run businesses are quite content to run [...]
WIT*e goes to Bangkok with Asia Connect
On September 7 in Bangkok, travel leaders will gather to discuss the latest trends in distribution and marketing affecting the Thai travel industry as well as to groom tomorrow’s tourism leaders.HSMAI Asia Pacific and WIT-Web In Travel are teaming up to bring Asia Connect as well as WIT*e, the ins [...]
Human touch critical to Contiki Asia
Given that its customers are the young and restless, Contiki Asia communicates with them at every channel available on the web but when it comes to sales, it still relies on the human touch of the traditional travel agent.Says Nicholas Lim (left), director of sales and marketing-Asia, for the tour o [...]
WIT Speakers Corner: Ancillaries 101: What’s the fuss?
Much has been written about the Ancillary Revenue services offered by the airlines. It has left many people scratching their heads wondering why it is so hard to be able to charge separately for – say – a premium seat.In this first article, I will address what Ancillaries are, in a Q&A forma [...]
WIT Speakers Corner: Symes since inception, Wego where next?
When I asked Martin when his first WIT experience was, he quickly answered, '“I’m a WIT old-timer.” Indeed, he's been there since inception and this year, naturally, he will be there again.Martin Symes is the CEO of Singapore-based Wego, a travel search engine that simplifies your life when yo [...]
Abacus puts first stake down in Kazakhstan
Robert Bailey’s first impression of Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan, was the pleasant climate. Coming from the equatorial island where he is based, Bailey recalls the fresh, cool air of the city that’s situated nearly 1,000m above sea level.“Almaty city has wide, tree-lined streets with a b [...]
Innovation by any other name equals commoditisation?
So what is this innovation talk all about then – an important question to consider when working on and inevitably claiming such a lofty ideal?In the travel sector, innovation is supposedly ready to greet us on every street corner, waiting to whisk the marketplace into a frenzy of adulation and cha [...]
Indonesia, APAC lead global surge in Twitter usage
In June, nearly 93 million Internet users visited Twitter.com, an increase of 109% from the previous year, as the social networking site achieved strong gains across all global regions, according to a comScore study.Indonesia reported the highest penetration, with 20.8% of Internet users in the co [...]
