Events
10 to vie for WIT Japan & North Asia Startup Pitch title in Tokyo
08/06/2018 by WiT
Ten semi-finalists, covering areas from tours & activities to hotel technology solutions and a photography marketplace, have been selected to compete in the WIT Japan & North Asia Startup Pitch happening in Tokyo June 28-29. Powered by Amadeus APAC, the competition will see one winner cro [...]
Travel industry urged to step Through the Looking Glass and embrace five new values at WIT Singapore 2018
07/06/2018 by WiT
In its 14th year, the award-winning WIT (Web In Travel) invites the travel industry to take a step Through the Looking Glass at this year’s WIT Singapore 2018 Conference at Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre from October 15 to 17. Attendees will also be encouraged to imbibe WIT’s f [...]
Travel Innovation and Tech-Focused Debate Share the Spotlight at Phocuswright Europe
18/05/2018 by WiT
Phocuswright Europe, in its eleventh year, gathered 600 European travel leaders for elevated content and unprecedented networking. Over two days (15-17 May), more than 40 speakers from Europe’s leading travel companies presented fresh insight into the unique challenges of the European travel marke [...]
Hail the future drone-based society – Kotaro Chiba bets big on drones and inbound tourism
10/05/2018 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Drones will be to society what the mobile phone is now – they will connect us, they will do all kinds of stuff for us, they will be everywhere and they will be invisible. That’s the vision of Kotaro Chiba, founder of the newly set-up 1 billion yen (US$16m) DroneFund in Japan. The co-found [...]
Record turnout at WIT Seoul 2018 shows interest in digital travel at all-time high
25/04/2018 by WiT
If there was one thing WIT Seoul 2018 proved, it’s that interest, and hunger for knowledge, in the digital travel space is at an all-time high in a market where rapid technological change and changing consumer behaviour are forcing travel incumbents to wake up and smell the web, as it were. A r [...]
On the circle of life, scale and experience chase each other’s tails
20/04/2018 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
In many ways I feel the industry is coming full circle – on one hand, you have the giants of scale talking about local experiences and community and on the other, independents and creatives talking about scale, each knowing you need the other to thrive in a digitally-driven world. At the recent [...]
Letter from Seoul: South Korea’s travel braces for change as perfect storm approaches
05/04/2018 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
There was a time when I visited Tokyo and I thought I had landed in a science fiction novel. Today I get that same feeling when I visit Seoul. Its citizens are more attached to their smartphones than anywhere else – by age 12, 72% of South Koreans own a smartphone and they spend 4.5 hours a day [...]
8 key takeaways from WIT Hospitality 2018: Cash flow and real estate may still rule but transform or be left behind
22/03/2018 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
I am sure by now hoteliers must be tired of hearing people tell them they must change. But they do say if you say something often enough, it will happen sooner rather than later. And It looks like something fundamental is shifting. It felt palpable at WIT Hospitality which took place in Hong Kong [...]
Melon, Magic, Money: The blurring of sci-fi and reality and the changing world of content creation
19/03/2018 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
From editing DNA in mice so as to learn how to make humans more space-faring to the continued search of habitable other worlds, to deep algorithm learning to make machines smarter and growing human organs in animals for future transplant, it was a day of mind-blowing inspiration for the 150 or so of [...]
Low cost and private accommodation changing travel in North Asia – WIT Japan & North Asia to home in on topical trends in June
14/03/2018 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Low cost airlines, private accommodation and the dispersal of tourism beyond the main hot spots will take the spotlight at the seventh edition of WIT Japan & North Asia which returns to Tokyo on June 28-29. At the recent CAPA (Centre For Aviation) Global Low Cost Carrier (LCC) Summit [...]