Skyscanner’s Williams takes on chairperson role, Dove is new CEO
Gareth Williams (featured image), Skyscanner's co-founder and chief executive officer, is to take up a new role as chair of the Edinburgh-based metasearch engine.
Replacing Williams, who co-founded the company in 2003, as CEO is chief technology officer Bryan Dove.
“I’m very excited to tak [...]
Letter from Amsterdam: Scale Infinity War and Local Avengers
The promise of summer is in the air as I walk through the streets of Amsterdam. The smells from both the canals and coffee shops waft through the air as I stroll aimlessly in a city made for walking and cycling, although these days, bicycles seem to have taken over.
I find crossing the streets in [...]
Wegogo takes a long shot at the long tail – can outsiders to travel and China make a go of it?
They are not your usual travel tech startups. First, they are hardly in the first blush of youth. They had successful corporate careers in blue chip companies in Singapore before they took the plunge into their first travel startup in 2014.
Second, their office is not in some cool co-working space [...]
Grand Park City Hall rolls out app to map customer experience, capture data
It’d be fair to say that hotels have largely lost the booking battle to OTAs, but there’s one area they are trying to fight back to capture customer data and that’s in the in-stay experience.
After all, that’s when they have the captive audience from the moment of check-in to check-out; [...]
Hail the future drone-based society – Kotaro Chiba bets big on drones and inbound tourism
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 [...]
Three lessons on how chatbots can become more than just talk but revenue drivers
This year’s buzzwords might be blockchain and (still) mobile, but it hasn’t been so long since ‘chatbots’ were the mot du jour. Buzzword no more, chatbots have now worked their way across industries, automating and often augmenting the customer service experience.
In hospitality, chatbots [...]
Rebranded Vidi aims to capture bigger slice of tours & activities market
Malaysian online travel startup, Touristly, has rebranded as Vidi to reflect its “evolution from a traditional trip planner to a visual discovery platform.”
The rebranding is also part of the company’s strategy to get a slice of the rapidly growing tours and activities market in Asia Pacifi [...]
Amadeus’ Smart Cities initiative rolls out with Asia as test bed
Amadeus is taking its technological capabilities and expertise beyond travel to tackle the challenges posed to societies by rapid urbanisation and the growth of mega cities, and Asia will be the test bed.
Its Smart Cities initiative, launched last week, is aimed at building a stronger understandi [...]
Raymond Blanc on how travel makes chefs greater and how old ways must change for new flavours to emerge
Raymond Blanc OBE may be French in his roots but it is his open-mindedness and curiosity that has made him the phenomenon he is today in the world of celebrity chefs.
Today one of Britain’s most respected chefs and chef-owner of Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Blanc, who was in Singapore [...]
At last, I am flavour of the month
I was having lunch with a friend in executive search recently when she told me that I am the new black – meaning someone with my profile is currently in fashion.
Having waited my whole life to hear this, my ears perked up over quinoa salad and chicken breast. This kind of food is also the new b [...]
