Featured
Still and Stuck: What’s the one big thing Covid-19 challenged your thinking on? Here are some answers
21/08/2020 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
“Nearly the end of August and still,” sighed my hairdresser this week. Yes, still. Still stuck. Still masked. Still Zoom. Since March, I must have interviewed countless people from across the world, ran lots of virtual events. And I sense a weariness settling in. It’s in the shoulders. [...]
Seven Clean Seas employs furloughed tourism workers to clean beaches, goal is to help companies achieve plastic neutrality
19/08/2020 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Seven Clean Seas, a Singapore-based social enterprise whose mission is to help companies achieve plastic neutrality with plastic credits, has employed the furloughed workers of Nikoi and Cempedak Islands in Indonesia for its beach clean-up programmes. Tom Peacock-Nazil, CEO and co-founder, said [...]
In age of scarcity, Traveloka goes from “hunting” to “harvesting” in its marketing rethink
19/08/2020 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Even though product has taken centre stage during Covid-19, Traveloka’s Christian Suwarna believes that marketing is also having its breakout moment in terms of how the Indonesian travel unicorn is rethinking its marketing strategy.  With limited funds to spend, the chief marketing offic [...]
The WiT Podcast: Unity In Crisis – Episode 20: Todd Arthur, Vice President, Sabre Travel Network, Asia Pacific
18/08/2020 by WiT
Todd Arthur is himself an avid traveller. He’s been to 117 countries and you can imagine how antsy he is to make it to 118. But for now, like all of us, he’s had to get used to a new routine at home and picking up a new life skill (and it’s not cooking or baking). And even though he says S [...]
AirAsia, Trip.com Group team up to spur revival in regional travel through sharing of assets
17/08/2020 by WiT
Two Asian travel giants, Malaysia-based AirAsia and China’s leading online travel services provider Trip.com Group, have formed a “strategic partnership” giving users access to products and services on their respective digital platforms. Under the agreement Trip.com and AirAsia.com, the ca [...]
Southeast Asia’s ‘discovery-driven’ digital consumers set to reach 310m by end of 2020
17/08/2020 by WiT
There will be 310m digital consumers in Southeast Asia by the end of 2020, from 250m in 2018. Faster than the region's population growth is the pace of its online spend, which is projected to grow 320% between 2018 and 2025. According to Facebook and Bain & Company's Riding the Digital Wave: [...]
WiT Startup winner IDEM Hospitality becomes part of Groups360 family
14/08/2020 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
For WiT Startup Pitch 2019 winner IDEM Hospitality, the meeting with Groups360 last June was fortuitous. What started out as a partnership discussion very quickly escalated into one around acquisition when it became obvious that it was “a match made in heaven”. IDEM Hospitality is now Groups [...]
Let’s talk about work, remote or otherwise, and its side effects
13/08/2020 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
This whole remote work thing that’s still going on in most parts of the world is producing lots of interesting outcomes, at least in places where remote work is an option. As Joseph Tsai, executive vice chairman of Alibaba Group, observed at the Singapore Fintech Festival recently, “remote work [...]
Cleartrip rolls out Travel Safe and Flexifly, aims to hit sweet spot between product and commerce
13/08/2020 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Covid-19 has made developers more empathetic to commercial interests: Subramanya Sharma If there is one positive that has come out of the biggest crisis to hit travel, it is that product has taken centrestage as online travel companies went back to their roots to build new tools and solutions, a [...]
The Millennial Traveller: A tribute to Karla and the beauty of slow travel
12/08/2020 by WiT
I imagine that travel for a dog is far less ambitious but far more fulfilling than for us humans. Dogs’ lives are far briefer than ours, more (technically) limited in what they can achieve, yet they are arguably superior in their ability to feel joy and contentment through the simplest of things. [...]