AI in action: When your concierge is an AI Agent and still sends cake
When the AI you built starts sending birthday cakes unprompted, you know you’re no longer just playing with automation anymore. You are looking at AI with a mind of its own.
That’s exactly what happened at The Luxe Nomad, a luxury villa booking platform. During a chat, guest mentioned about a b [...]
Legends: From Global Startup Pitch winner to industry trailblazer
Legends, a pioneering travel technology company, has emerged as a significant success story since winning the Web in Travel (WiT) and Phocuswright Global Startup Pitch award. Legends is helping to transform the travel industry by leveraging AI and data to turn consented consumer data into real-tim [...]
From Labubu to Lady Gaga: Singapore’s tourism bets big amid global gloom
In a world clouded by tariffs, tensions and teetering economies, Singapore is doubling down on a singular message – tourism is not just nice to have, it’s critical to its future. And from Pop Mart’s shaggy star Labubu to pop icon Lady Gaga, dinosaurs to robots, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB [...]
Scroll, Search, Shop: What Africa’s travel marketers are getting right in the digital age
In the age of infinite scroll, where social feeds double as search engines and AI can build a trip faster than you can pack a suitcase, the rules of travel marketing are changing, especially in Africa.
At WiT Africa 2025, the panel “Search, Social & Commerce in the New Age” explored how bra [...]
Beyond gorillas: Rwanda and its pursuit of high value, low impact tourism
How the ‘Singapore of Africa’ sees conservation, hospitality and the role of women
Rwanda is often synonymous with mountain gorilla trekking, but this East African nation of 14 million is rapidly transforming into a global leader in high-value, low-impact tourism.
During the "Spotlight: Rwa [...]
Don’t write off AI as hype: Once-in-a-generation transformation, says Chris Hemmeter
An existential threat to suppliers and golden time for startups
Yes, there is a lot of hype around AI right now and some of us may have become immune or even cynical about it but you'd be wise not to, warned Chris Hemmeter, managing director of Thayer Ventures.
Opening his talk on “Gen AI and [...]
Africa will chart its own course: AI, tech and local know-how will unlock potential
When Zachariah George, of Launch Africa Ventures, moved to Africa after 15 years ago, there were more mobile phones in Manhattan than the whole of Africa. Today there are more mobile phone lines in Africa than the whole of North America, including Mexico and Central America.
That phenomenal shift [...]
The future of Northeast Asia travel is online
WiT Japan & North Asia returns to Tokyo, May 26-27
The future of Northeast Asia travel is online, with Phocuswright predicting that the region will smash through another barrier in online travel bookings by 2026, reaching $30 billion.
The latest Phocuswright Northeast Asia Travel Market Repo [...]
Nadia Omer on lessons from strangers, and focus on cost, price and budget travel
"Budget travel isn’t about taking market share from premium airlines; it’s about activating new demographics to fly for the first time." - Nadia Omer, CEO, AirAsia MOVE
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last night played host to the first-ever Travel Tech Thursdays, a joint event by WiT, Wego and My Indie [...]
WiT & Phocuswright return to Middle East to unlock promise of a growth region
There is no doubt that the Middle East is a region on the rise, buoyed by the investments being made in Saudi Arabia as it strives to meet its target of 150 million tourists by 2030.
Phocuswright’s annual Middle East Travel Market Report, issued in 2024, forecasts a 40% growth in the region’s t [...]
