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Mystifly extends flights platform to non-travel brands, creates new call centre business
11/08/2021 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
“We survived, now ready to thrive,” says Rajeev Kumar on 12th (no, second) anniversary IT may be Mystifly’s 12th anniversary but to founder Rajeev Kumar and co-founder Bharat Goyal, it feels more like its second year “because we went back to zero” when the pandemic devastated its B2B f [...]
AirAsia’s BigPay secures US$100m from South Korea’s SK Group to grow its financial businesses
09/08/2021 by WiT
BigPay, the fintech unit of airasia Digital, has raised up to US$100 million in financing from SK Group, the third-largest conglomerate in South Korea by asset size. This is the first time any portfolio company within airasia Digital has secured financing of this size. BigPay said the funding [...]
Tentative recovery lifts Q2 results for major travel brands, except for APAC
05/08/2021 by WiT
WHILE things remain glum in Asia Pacific, with almost all cross-border travel within the region halted and countries undergoing new waves of infections, it is good to see financial performance of major travel companies on the mend – although admittedly, recovery remains fragile. Second quarte [...]
Expedia Group teams up with UNICEF to “give the world a shot”
05/08/2021 by WiT
ONLINE travel brands are stepping in to help fight Covid and to get travel back on its feet. Today, Expedia Group announced a joint programme with UNICEF, calling on travellers to join in an effort to help safely re-open the world, one trip and one shot at a time. Effective today, each purch [...]
Farewell, Datuk Kee – you made a difference to Penang
04/08/2021 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
ANYONE who’s ever had any dealings with Penang’s travel industry would have met her, if not, would have known or heard of her. In fact, more often than not, you would hear or sense her before she actually arrived on the scene because Datuk Kee Phaik Cheen had a personality that was larger t [...]
How to turn revenge travel into beautiful travel – tips from those doing it
04/08/2021 by WiT
PENT-UP demand there will be for sure – look at how travel has rebounded in markets where restrictions have been lifted – but how can the industry turn “revenge travel” into “beautiful travel”, given the downtime it has had to create new products and services to cater to changed consume [...]
It will be a while before flights get better for consumers and here’s why
03/08/2021 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Fixing flights still cumbersome, only a few players can be globally competitive, says Etraveli's Hedlund WHILE everyone is dreaming of “better travel” ahead, post-Covid, it will still be a while before flight bookings become a good consumer experience and in fact, according to Mathias Hedlun [...]
As Singapore waits for open borders, time to celebrate local champions
29/07/2021 by Tabbi Maitland
THE first virtual Singapore Tourism Awards held this week opened with a glimmer of hope for an industry forced to survive on domestic when Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong alluded to a tourism reopening roadmap over the next few months. Mentioning “group travel” with safe itinera [...]
Travellers don’t want same old, they want new – from how they travel to where they go
28/07/2021 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
Expedia's first Traveler Value Index shows consumers “do not want to go back to what it was in 2019”, says Greg Schulze JUST as the Olympics, which is currently ongoing in Japan, proves that sports can unite humanity, so can travel and Expedia Group’s Greg Schulze believes it won’t be lo [...]
What Yanolja intends to do with its new $1.7b funding
26/07/2021 by Yeoh Siew Hoon
No plans for consumer superapp outside South Korea, focus is on building next-gen travel platform “beyond OTA”, says CEO Jongyoon Kim WHEN news broke of SoftBank Vision Fund’s US$1.7b investment in Yanolja last week staff of the South Korean travel unicorn were working from home due to tig [...]