WIT Warrior Spotlight: Fritz Demopoulos – be focused, stay humble and bust stereotypes
At the WIT Conference last year in Singapore, we recognised 11 individuals whom we felt have had the most influence on the development of online travel in Asia Pacific. This is the fourth article in a series of interviews profiling the WIT Warriors. Fritz Demopoulos was one of three co-founders of Q [...]
How to succeed in online travel: Lessons from WIT Japan
As a first-timer attending WIT Japan & North Asia, it was certainly an eye-opener as I listened to more than 60 speakers and industry experts share their collective wisdom and insights into what it takes for to succeed in the online travel space in the region. Here are some of the lessons gleane [...]
travelmob no more as HomeAway builds brand to grow global vacation rental travel
The dropping of the travelmob name to become HomeAway Asia this month is part of a wider move by the Austin-based company to build a global brand and encourage global vacation rental travel. travelmob was started by two co-founders, Turochas Fuad and PK, who sold 63% of the business to HomeAway in J [...]
Travel is getting like “Game of Thrones”, be like a Hobbit to win
The news is sweet. Online travel is growing faster than the overall market and APAC remains a high growth market. However that didn’t stop Timothy Hughes, vice president marketing of Agoda, from reminding everyone “it’s a brutal market out there” and predicting a “bloodbath”.Hughes said [...]
Kathleen Tan leaves Expedia following global reorganisation as HQ takes charge
Rumours had been flying of leadership changes that would take place in the Air Asia Expedia joint venture after Expedia increased its stake to 75% this February, and this week the changes happened.A global reorganisation was announced this week to staff in Asia, along with news that CEO Kathleen Tan [...]
Booking Boss, powering tours & activities, secures new funding to expand to Europe
Booking Boss, the Australia-based provider of software solutions for the tours and activities sector, is set to expand further into Europe, as well as dig deeper into Asia, following the completion of a A$2m Series A financing round.The financing was led by Sydney investors Michael and Daniel Dempse [...]
Letter from Tokyo: So much easier to enjoy, and things are just getting started
Arrived in Tokyo Monday morning on the Japan Airlines red-eye from Singapore. There’s a lot to be said when travelling to a foreign country on their home carrier – it prepares you for the destination.
We spend a lot of time lambasting national carriers and how wasteful and inefficient they ar [...]
It was as if I were there: How I embraced virtual reality in travel
Immersive marketing is now a thing. I first heard of it when HBO employed the hottest tech gadget - Oculus Rift - at SXSW last year to market the popular TV show, Game of Thrones.
Don a pair of virtual reality (VR) goggles and conference-goers could get a taste of life as a member of the Night� [...]
WIT Warrior Spotlight: Tujia’s Melissa wants to make travel better for Chinese travelers
At the WIT Conference last year in Singapore, we recognised 11 individuals whom we felt have had the most influence on the development of online travel in Asia Pacific. This is the third article in a series of interviews profiling our WIT Warriors.
Melissa Yang returned to China after a successfu [...]
Expedia sells eLong to Ctrip & others, and now there’s Ctrip and Qunar
It was a short statement, announced today in Bellevue – if you weren’t paying attention, you would have missed it entirely – which would have meant missing possibly the most significant development in the Chinese online travel market.
Here’s what the statement said:
“Expedia has sold [...]
