Events
Letter from Explore ’19: Persevere, respect, be mindful – and oh, get more sleep
14/11/2019 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
If I had to sum up the first day of Expedia Group’s Explore ’19 conference in Las Vegas today in three words, they’d be “perseverance, respect and mindfulness”. The morning opened with a talk by Colin O’Brady who, after nine years of having his legs burnt at a beach party in Thailand [...]
Expedia sets as its “Everest” – a frictionless travel experience
14/11/2019 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
He got burnt badly at a beach party in Koh Tao, Thailand, was told he’d never walk again and ended up climbing several mountains including Everest and walking across the Antarctica. Colin O’Brady opened Expedia Group’s Explore ’19 conference in Las Vegas this morning by asking delegates, � [...]
Twenty years on, from Ctrip to Trip: From China power to “glocal” giant
29/10/2019 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
It felt like I was going to a rock concert. The night before, on a cruise on the Huangpu river, the city lights were in full blaze but one illumination stood out, the Pearl Tower lights announcing that Ctrip was turning 20 – a city paying homage to its homegrown Internet giant. This morning, [...]
Transformation of a sacred cow: The flight path of SIA into a digital enterprise, beyond airline seats
28/10/2019 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Singapore Airlines (SIA) started its digital transformation in 2016. Since then, hundreds of millions have been invested in IT capex with the vision of creating a “future where SIA remains a prestigious proposition but becomes a smaller part of the whole entity, and the other seeds would have bec [...]
Navigating the pitfalls for travel startups: A “safety” guide
24/10/2019 by WiT
“My  goal is to highlight some of the most common place calamities to befall travel startups,” was how Rod Cuthbert, board member of Veltra Corp and former chairman & CEO of Viator & Rome2rio, started his presentation at WiT Innovation Stage held last week in conjunction with WiT S [...]
Letter from the South China Sea: Time for unusual thinking, unorthodox partnerships and old-fashioned making money
23/10/2019 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Yeoh Siew Hoon gets stranded on a coral reef off Cempedak and ponders the secrets of the travel universe as they were revealed at last week’s WiT Singapore 2019. The sun was about to call it a day when we set out on a boat from Cempedak Island off Bintan, Indonesia. Our destination was a coral [...]
WiT Singapore 2019: How Generation Alpha is influencing travel, from planning to in-trip activities
16/10/2019 by WiT
They are born after 2010 (nine years and under) in the same year as Instagram and the iPad, are known as the children of millennials, the largest generation that is still being born on a daily basis, and the longest living generation. This is Generation Alpha. “If you don’t know about Alpha, [...]
Innovation and startups take centre stage on first day of WiT Singapore 2019, launch of WiT Africa announced
14/10/2019 by WiT
WiT Singapore 2019 kicked off with the day dedicated to companies and speakers representing sectors and markets where innovation and entrepreneurship drive change. Underscoring the day’s theme of innovation and change was the announcement that WiT will embrace Africa into its family of events [...]
WiT (Web in Travel) to launch African edition in 2020
14/10/2019 by WiT
WiT (Web in Travel), the leading travel tech conference and media in Asia Pacific, is bringing its event to Africa with the launch of WiT Africa in Cape Town, South Africa, on May 28, 2020. “The time has come for Africa in the online travel space,” said WiT founder Yeoh Siew Hoon. “The res [...]
On the back of booming Internet economy in SEA, WiT takes bird’s eye view of travel 2020 and beyond
08/10/2019 by WiT
It’s been a momentous time for online travel and on the cusp of a new decade, the WiT Singapore 2019 conference – being held Oct 14-16 – will take a bird’s eye view of the industry and project into the future of what travel could look like in 2020 and beyond. And it’s a promising futu [...]