Building the ‘Amadeus Empire’: Expect intensity in M&A activity and investments
With its vision of becoming the focal point in the travel eco-system, expect Amadeus to continue with its intense pace of Mergers & Acquisitions activity as well as drive innovation within the group by investing in start-ups through its Amadeus Venture Fund.Visiting Bangkok last week, Alex Luzar [...]
Letter from Kuching: Excuse me, do you want my hot spot?
I’ve just returned from Kuching where we ran a Digital Marketing Bootcamp for the travel trade. The objective was to basically arm industry players with information and knowledge of how to make their business, and their destination, easily discoverable in the digital world.If you’ve been to Kuch [...]
The making of Cempedak Island and the bamboo that went missing for a month
Writing about clicks all the time, it makes a nice change to write about bricks or, in this case, bamboo.Just caught up with Andrew Dixon, the former banker-turned-hotelier of Nikoi Island fame, who's right in the throes of building his latest resort, Cempedak, on an Indonesian island he bought more [...]
WIT Start-Up Pitch: Kaligo wants to solve the loyalty gap in OTAs
Feel you're not being rewarded properly when you book your hotel room? One OTA is trying to address that. Kyle Armstrong, CEO & co-founder of Kaligo, tells WIT their plan.Q: Describe the business, core products and services in one paragraphKaligo.com is an online booking platform that rewards cu [...]
WIT picks three projects to support at this year’s Charity Auction
The WIT Charity Auction, held in conjunction with the annual WIT Conference Oct 19-21 in Singapore, returns this year to support three beneficiaries – Children of Vietnam, KOTO Enterprise, Hanoi and a Community Craft Project in North Thailand.“Continuing with our purpose of supporting women, chi [...]
Letter from Bangkok: Same, same but different
It seemed not much had changed in Bangkok. The day I arrived, it had been raining – which can only mean one thing. Bad traffic.After an hour into the ride from airport to hotel, I asked the driver how much longer we had and he said, “One more hour.”“What!” I exclaimed – a typical respo [...]
Coin-Back makes progress, new kiosk boasts simple UI for travellers to donate
Caught up with Naoe Miyata and co-founder Jasnam Sachdev of Coin-Back, our WIT Indonesia 2015 Start-Up winner, in Bangkok this week – I was curious to find out how his project which encourages travellers to drop coins, pick their cause and track their donations was getting on.Well, he came to Siam [...]
Call for entries: WITovation Awards returns in 2015
The WITovation Awards, which recognise excellence in digital marketing and user experience in travel, returns with the WIT Conference (Singapore, Oct 19-21).Entries are being sought in four categories - Social Butterfly, Absolute Mobile, Data Specialist and Content Magician.Into its fourth edition, [...]
Oakwood launches Studios brand, enters Singapore
Oakwood Asia Pacific announced last week it will be launching a new serviced residence brand in Singapore – Oakwood Studios – due for completion in November 2016. A management contract with local developer Newfort Realty Pte Ltd was signed for a period of 10 years, with an option to renew for 10 [...]
How to go beyond being a “digital vampire”: Take some tips from The Who’s Townshend
In his John Peel Lecture of 2011, Pete Townshend of The Who called iTunes a “digital vampire”, saying it was bleeding artists with its enormous 30% commission.He then went on to give some tips as to how iTunes could create a better world for all – unearth new, good music through editorial guid [...]
