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 [...]
The Phocuswright Conference: Presenting the Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2023
It has long been said that creativity and innovation often arrive in times of crisis. Our selections of the Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2023 certainly validate that mantra.
Of the 25 startups on this list, 14 have been founded since the start of 2020 when travel - and much else in the world - came [...]
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 [...]
A Gen Z perspective on dreaming and planning travel – “flawsome videos” are the new black
Cole Lim, a hospitality graduate from Singapore Institute of Technology, attended WiT Singapore 2022 and this is his key takeaway from the event.
Imagine that you are planning a picnic with your friends this weekend. Where would you go to search for the perfect picnic spot with luxurious green gr [...]
Want to be a K-artist? South Korea ramps up for recovery with fresh ideas, new products and eye on tech
K-wave, longtail experiences, NDC, Urban Air Mobility – Seoul all out to bring back travel
FROM Korea Tourism Organisation (KTO) considering visas for fans wanting to enrol in K-pop training classes to global attraction pass company, Go City launching its first city pass in Seoul since the pandem [...]
Cruise chiefs hail comeback, urge travel agents to embrace digital – it’s now or never
CRUISING is back – with Cruise World Asia 2022 held in-person in Singapore for the first time in three years – and cruise chiefs in Asia urged their travel agent customers to embrace digital, given the acceleration in digital consumer behaviour during the pandemic.
This shift to online is hap [...]
Follow mummy’s advice, work with OTAs and embrace new economy asset class: Miguel Ko on the future of hospitality
Amid the bad news, investors pick bright spots – Japan leads the way
Hoteliers who follow their mother’s advice “to share”, learn to embrace the “new economy asset classes” and learn to work with OTAs are the ones who will win in the new world of hospitality, said Miguel Ko, chairman of [...]
Making sense of the metaverse of madness
“The real meaning of Web3 is all about community”, says DayAway’s Waslen
There are few conversations that don’t feel surreal in 2022, yet since the carnage in the crypto-currency market, businesses built around blockchain have had a particularly rough ride. Yet as WiT 2022 said ‘Hello Oth [...]
