A Bird’s Eye View: What will OTA 4.0 look like?
I guess if someone had been asked 20 years ago what an OTA 1.0 might look like, few people would have the answer – until Booking.com and Expedia did it in 1996 and Ctrip followed in 1999, and showed the way.
It’s a testament to these three that two decades on, they are still on top of their [...]
New investor in Travelstart gives it access to funds to own Africa
"We can now do the deals we want to do," says CEO Stephan Ekbergh
Travelstart, Africa’s leading online travel company, has taken on a new investor in the form of global private markets investment firm HarbourVest in a move that CEO Stephan Ekbergh says gives it access to capital to realise it [...]
Amadeus runs live NDC bookings through global partnership with Travix
Amadeus announced last week that it has started conducting live NDC bookings since last November, through a newly established global partnership with online travel agency, Travix.
Travix is considered one of Amadeus’ “driver customers” for its NDC-enabled Web Services solution, which the G [...]
It’ll take the whole industry to truly make NDC a reality, but progress is being made
In
the complicated world of airline distribution, NDC is an acronym many use but seemingly
few truly understand. In a panel made of travel management companies, airlines
and GDS providers openly shared their hopes and hesitations regarding the
elusive technology that continues to promise to revolut [...]
Ctrip offers insights into customised high-end travel, highlights difference from standard packages
The concept of "customised travel" is relatively new in China, a trend seen only in recent year and, as such, there are uncertainties surrounding this luxury segment.
Ctrip, China’s largest online travel agent, shared insights into this growing market in its new report, Chinese High-End Outb [...]
YouTrip raises US$25.5m in pre-Series A to help SEA travellers with payments on the road
Singapore startup YouTrip announced today that it has raised US$25.5m in its pre-Series A – making it the largest funding round for a fintech startup in South-east Asia.
Participating investors include major Asian
family offices and venture capital firm Insignia Ventures Partners.
Launche [...]
WiT Seoul 2019: Invest in predictive data and create sticky customer experiences to win in online travel
At WiT Seoul held in early April, a panel of investors discussed what it would take to capture the hearts and dollars of South Korean travellers in an increasingly competitive travel space.
It naturally distilled down to the core
importance of harnessing data and analytics to better understand [...]
WiT Europe puts spotlight on two markets for the future, Asia and Middle East
In two weeks’ time, WiT will be back in Amsterdam, putting the spotlight on Asia and for the first time, Middle East. For companies looking for new growth, these two regions are critical for the future.
In the past four months, we have held events in Malaysia, Dubai and Seoul and one thing’ [...]
Letter from Seoul: Travel market has all the makings of a K-drama like Mr Sunshine
Someone once asked me why WiT was in Seoul. My answers were simple. It is the second largest outbound market in Asia, after China. Consumers are changing faster than traditional travel players. Into that vacuum has entered global OTAs and local startups that are rewriting the rules of the game.
[...]
Helicopter ride-sharing pioneer Ascent flying high
Ride-sharing has gone up to the skies with newcomer Ascent joining the fray with a pioneering concept – helicopter ride-sharing.
The Singapore-based startup, founded last year, has already seen some initial success in Philippines where it started its service earlier this month with support fro [...]
