From surfing to startups: Ross Veitch on founding Wego, cracking the Middle East, and the AI-driven future of travel
Ross Veitch never set out to be a tech founder. In fact, he was closer to becoming a full-time surfer than a CEO. Yet today, as co-founder and CEO of Wego, one of the leading travel metasearch and marketplace platforms serving the Middle East and Asia Pacific, Veitch is proof that unconventional beg [...]
Trump, tariffs and travel: How will the turbulence play out in Asia?
Could intra-Asia travel provide a soft landing?
Travel industry leaders around the world are bracing themselves for the fallout of the Trump tariffs announced yesterday, and even more so in Asia, where most countries have been lumped into the “worst offenders” bucket and are facing what BBC de [...]
Stuart Trevor: The fashion rebel who wants to change the industry without making clothes
The AllSaints founder wants hoteliers to rethink the way they dress staff
Stuart Trevor, the maverick who once outfitted the likes of Depeche Mode, The Who, and Destiny’s Child through his iconic brand AllSaints, is back – and this time, he wants to turn the fashion industry on its head.
Hi [...]
White Lotus, White Noise
Okay, I’m just going to say it and risk being pelted with coconuts: White Lotus doesn’t make me want to visit Koh Samui. It makes me want to run the other way — preferably to a place without Wi-Fi or smug characters in linen suits.
But clearly, I’m in the minority.
The internet is fr [...]
Asia’s full rebound meets AI revolution: Leapfrogging into the future
Twin forces will produce more use cases in tech innovation in region, says Trip's Schubert Lou
For Schubert Lou, Chief Executive Officer at Trip.com, 2025 marks a defining moment for the travel industry, driven by two forces: the full return of Asia, including China, and the rapid acceleration of a [...]
Beyond gorillas: Rwanda and its pursuit of high value, low impact tourism
How the ‘Singapore of Africa’ sees conservation, hospitality and the role of women
Rwanda is often synonymous with mountain gorilla trekking, but this East African nation of 14 million is rapidly transforming into a global leader in high-value, low-impact tourism.
During the "Spotlight: Rwa [...]
Don’t write off AI as hype: Once-in-a-generation transformation, says Chris Hemmeter
An existential threat to suppliers and golden time for startups
Yes, there is a lot of hype around AI right now and some of us may have become immune or even cynical about it but you'd be wise not to, warned Chris Hemmeter, managing director of Thayer Ventures.
Opening his talk on “Gen AI and [...]
Letter from Cape Town: Of luxury living, butts and dogs
“You stopping off in Johannesburg?” asked the Singapore Airlines stewardess. “No, I am getting off in Cape Town,” I replied. “Good,” she responded. “Better. Safer.”
Clearly a woman of few words, she captured the essence of what makes Africa travel so different from everywhere else [...]
Africa will chart its own course: AI, tech and local know-how will unlock potential
When Zachariah George, of Launch Africa Ventures, moved to Africa after 15 years ago, there were more mobile phones in Manhattan than the whole of Africa. Today there are more mobile phone lines in Africa than the whole of North America, including Mexico and Central America.
That phenomenal shift [...]
From redundancy to HeyMax: Plugging into the traveller’s economy to help people travel more, spend less
A fintech-loyalty play where it’s about the traveller, says Joe Lu
Joe Lu was on a swing with his newborn daughter in Kobe, Japan during a month-long sabbatical, when he got the news that the Facebook engineering office he had started in Singapore and headed since 2019 would be closed down and j [...]
