Skyscanner’s focus on product, APAC and diversification pays off
Global travel search engine Skyscanner’s investments into mobile, Asia Pacific and diversification including a booking platform are paying off, giving a double digit fillip to both revenues and gross bookings for the year ending December 31, 2015.Revenues were £120 million ($183 million), up 28% [...]
Letter from Phoukhuone, Laos: At last, a chance at a future for girls
If you google “Phoukhuone Laos”, not much information appears. There are a couple of posts by intrepid travellers who have to cross the town on their way somewhere in this landlocked country, bordered by Myanmar and China (north), Vietnam (east), Cambodia (south) and Thailand (west). One post ta [...]
Amid food & beverage disruption, Accor launches Table Plus
All part of its digital transformation, Accor Hotels launched Accor Marketplace, a platform to distribute not only its own branded hotels but independent properties. It was clearly a move to regain control of its own inventory and to counter the growing power of the global OTAs.This January, it laun [...]
Expedia’s Greg Schulze on dogs, consumer anxiety and “anything that moves”
If Greg Schulze had his way, the entire travel search process should have dog-friendly filters. The global executive of “anything that moves”, as he calls his portfolio at Expedia, moved to Singapore with his family in January and left their two dogs behind. Clearly missing his best friends, Sch [...]
Letter from Penang: Lessons from the Monkey King
I was sitting in my doctor’s office and browsing through his reading materials, I came across comic books about the Monkey King, a main character in the Chinese classical novel, Journey To The West.Known as Sun Wukong, the Monkey King has been in my consciousness since childhood. Sun Wukong, a mon [...]
Why Travelstart’s Ekbergh decided to get married after 10 years of bacherlorhood
It was around March last year that Stephan Ekbergh, sole owner and founder of South Africa-based Travelstart, was first approached by Amadeus Capital Partners (not related to Amadeus IT by the way).The first meeting with Andrea Traversone took place in ITB Berlin and Ekbergh recalled it didn’t go [...]
Racing through Kuching for a good cause, Heritage Race to go places in 2016
Sarawak’s tourism industry raised a total of RM20,000 (US$4,750) on January 30 from the inaugural Kuching Heritage Race, supported by Northstar Travel Group's brands - WIT (Web In Travel) and Travel Weekly Asia.The two-hour event, which was created by WIT founder Yeoh Siew Hoon, saw close to 48 te [...]
Booking.com dominates, Agoda makes showing in Europe
SiteMinder's list of top 10 hotel booking sites in 2015 within five of Europe and Asia Pacific's top travel markets shows the clear dominance of booking.com across markets including Thailand where its sister company Agoda is based.Interestingly, the results also show Agoda making headway in markets [...]
Silence of the web at ASEAN travel leaders level
For all the chatter and plans unveiled at the ASEAN Tourism Forum held in Manila earlier this month, nowhere did the Internet feature, or any discussion on the impact of the web on travel.The silence on the topic was staggering – aside from the Malaysian national tourist office (NTO) press briefin [...]
Don’t just manage revenue, create a holistic strategy
In the decade when Marriott International was credited for adapting American Airlines’ yield management practices for the hospitality industry, the Internet barely existed, Expedia was still a decade from launching, Mark Zuckerberg was just a baby and Google was 20 years from changing the world.Su [...]
