Shanghai Express layover. Taiwanese DMC gets digital. AI powers language app.
Your Shanghai layover is here
Shanghai Express is a free layover city tour launched by Trip.com Group to show travellers the highlights of Shanghai before their next flight.
International travellers transiting the Shanghai Pudong International Airport for more than eight hours are eligible for [...]
Rewards take a hit. Quicktext and Velma speak your language. Cirium’s trendy data. More.
Reward points losing their power
If you think your airline reward points are losing their value, you would be right. The latest IdeaWorksCompany Reward Seat Availability Survey looked at the cost of points redemption across six US airlines - Alaska, American, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, and Unit [...]
Fritz Demopoulos on new frontiers in travel & beyond
Where others see bad traffic and chaos, this entrepreneur sees opportunities. It was with this thinking that he fearlessly co-founded the first travel metasearch company in China in 2005, Qunar, which is now part of the Trip.com Group. Since his exit, he’s been keeping a watchful eye on travel tec [...]
AI and what it means for business travel management
In recent years, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into various industries has spurred transformations in operational efficiency and user experiences. The impact of AI on business travel was a central focus during the Big Idea sessions at both the GBTA APAC and GBTA Europe conferences, [...]
Surveying the surveys. Trip.com gets mobile with Amadeus. NusaTrip enters digitalised market. More.
From astro-pads to Spanish accents, there’s a survey for you
Artificial intelligence has spurned the age of the travel survey. Just this week, I’ve been informed about the most difficult accents for Aussies to understand (Spanish), the world’s best cities for singles (Tokyo, followed by Doha) [...]
14% increase in travel technology investment set for 2024
Recent research conducted by Amadeus, titled "Travel Technology Investment Trends," reveals a significant surge in technology investment across various sectors within the travel industry in 2024. The study, the first of its kind to comprehensively analyse investment intentions and technology priorit [...]
Booking bullet trains. Azgo cashback. Velma assists Warwick Hotels. More.
Booking the bullet now easier
Tokyo-listed Inbound Platform Corp has launched its Shinkansen (bullet train) ticket service, which includes basic fares, express tickets and ticket issuance via QR codes, for international travellers and foreign residents in Japan.
Through the ‘Japan Bullet Train [...]
TravelAI rescues Casai. Women in the workforce. Jeeves the Snackbot. Hotelbeds of the Caribbean.
Women in the workforce: The Economist crunches the numbers
To mark International Women’s Day on 8 March, The Economist has released its annual glass-ceiling index, its measure of the role and influence of women in the workforce.
The publisher looked at 10 indicators—from labour-force partici [...]
WiT Podcast: Cooking up AI and product love with Booking.com’s Adrienne Enggist
“You've got to make your mistakes differently”, says Enggist
As a student, Adrienne Enggist, Senior Director of Product, Customer Experience and Platforms for Booking.com, had an epiphany, not a hallucination, when she listened to Timothy O’Leary, the late American psychologist and author kno [...]
Growing regulations, shift towards online and AI driving change in experiences sector
The response by authorities to over-tourism and environmental concerns by either the introduction of fees and limiting tourist numbers are posing a challenge to the experiences industry, said Arival CEO and co-founder Douglas Quinby at the opening of Arival in Berlin this week.
“In some popul [...]
