Letter from Ohio: Rock & roll, small towns and apple pie
CLEVELAND, Ohio, may not be the most obvious destination for a first holiday in 20 months, but it certainly yields the most unexpected discoveries. And perhaps this could be the way post-pandemic travel eventually pans out – that we seek out the not-so-obvious to truly enjoy the serendipity and a [...]
RedDoorz CEO on SEA potential, performance marketing lessons and growing up fast
Digitisation accelerated among consumers as well as independent hotel owners
YEOH Siew Hoon interviewed Amit Saberwal, CEO of RedDoorz, Southeast Asia's largest technology-driven hotel management & booking platform at the Phocuswright Conference 2021, where they spoke about the breakout reg [...]
Travelstart and MakeMyTrip: Charting a post-pandemic future
TWO online travel pioneers – Travelstart founded in 1999 in Africa and MakeMyTrip founded in India in 2000 – were at WiT Experience Singapore to share how they are facing the future as they emerge from the dust of Covid.
In a wide-ranging conversation, both companies talked about new service [...]
A change in approach to how travel should tackle pandemics is necessary: Prof Tambyah
THE travel community should take a more active role in overcoming the pandemic – not in the sense of eradicating it, but to figure out how we can more quickly normalise life and travel with it.
Professor Paul Tambyah: “This pandemic has battered the travel industry, and it is not going to be [...]
Inspired by French Riviera, powered by Sweden, taking root in Cape Town
“Magic happens when there is diversity”: Stephan Ekbergh on Innovation City Cape Town
TRAVEL entrepreneur and CEO of Travelstart, Stephan Ekbergh, is embarking on a new project, Innovation City, to transform his adopted home of Cape Town into a thriving, diverse ecosystem of digital talent, [...]
Letter from Fort Lauderdale: The sun rises on global travel
Expedia's Kern says no more “peanut butter” approach to expansion while Concur founder Steve Singh dives deep into corporate travel disruption
WHEN Mark Mahaney, senior managing director of investment banking firm, Evercore, asked the audience at the Phocuswright conference how many had trav [...]
The Commander and the Hawk: Sometimes it’s good to let go
KAYAK and Open Table chief on entry into hospitality and changes to work habits
THIS week, KAYAK announced two more hotels in New Mexico, in addition to its existing one in Miami. Steve Hafner talks about what this expansion into hospitality means plus how he’s been managing through the pandem [...]
Japanese travel in transition to better times ahead as curbs eased and Go To Travel campaign may restart
JTB’s president sees “bright future”, Reiwa wants to shake up outbound travel market
JAPAN’S battered tourism industry is hopeful that it
may be turning the corner on the pandemic. At the end of September, the state
of emergency covering Tokyo and 18 other prefectures was lifted and an i [...]
Cambodia celebrates full reopening of borders
“Incredible achievement” in handling Covid, industry players say
CAMBODIA’s travel trade, which had been waiting eagerly for borders to reopen, is in jubilant spirits following the government’s sudden decision to lift quarantine for all vaccinated travellers with immediate effect.
On [...]
Letter from Miami: Take a deep breath, dive in, viva la vida
WHEN I told my friends in New York I was headed to Miami next, their first reaction was, “Be careful. It’s crazy there.”Coming from Singapore, with its restrictions on social life and crowds, New York is already crazy enough – to be back with humanity again, to be breathing the same air wit [...]
